Abstract
Background:
The role of a rapid response team (RRT) or medical emergency team is to bring the expertise of specialists trained in critical care to patients on general medicine and surgical wards who are rapidly deteriorating and to treat them accordingly. The involvement of pharmacists on cardiopulmonary resuscitation teams has been reported. However, the role of a pharmacist member of an RRT has not been extensively researched.
Objective:
To identify the role of a pharmacist on an RRT and categorize types of pharmacist interventions during cardiopulmonary resuscitation and initial patient assessments.
Methods:
This pilot study documented interventions made by the pharmacist on our RRT over a 1-month period. The pharmacist assisted the RRT with evaluations of patients during assessments and cardiopulmonary resuscitations and provided specialized medical information based on our current organizational standards of practice.
Results:
The pharmacist attended 34 consultations and 8 resuscitations during cardiopulmonary arrests. There were 96 interventions made during 34 RRT assessments—2.6 interventions per assessment. The most common interventions were treatment recommendations (29%), dosing recommendations (15%), and procuring medications for emergent use (12%). In both the treatment and dosing categories, antibiotic recommendations were the most common.
Conclusions:
The pharmacist member of the RRT had the opportunity for intervention on every patient seen by the team. The most common areas for intervention are treatment and dosing recommendations involving antibiotics, as well as providing and preparing emergent medications.
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