Wellington Intensive Care Unit

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WELLINGTON MEDICAL EMERGENCY TEAM STATISTICS

The following diagrams show statistics gathered from the computerised logs of Wellington Regional Hospital switchboard for '777' emergency calls for which a date, time, location & type of call (Medical Emergency Team or Cardiac Arrest) are recorded. The Emergency Department, Intensive Care Unit, Theatres & Post-Anaesthetic Care Unit, Paediatric and Obstetric wards are all excluded.

Please roll over the image for an explanation of the dataset.

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DATE & TIME
All emergency calls by day of the week

Dataset taken from 1333 emergency '777' calls made to Wellington switchboard between Jan 2009 & June 2012. This includes both Cardiac Arrest & Medical Emergency Team calls.

The uneven distribution is a likely reflection of in-patient elective admissions, being maximal mid-week.

All emergency calls by hour of day

Dataset taken from 1333 emergency '777' calls made to Wellington switchboard between Jan 2009 & June 2012. This includes both Cardiac Arrest & Medical Emergency Team calls.

The bimodal distribution is likely to represent nursing shift changes. Less '777' activation occurs outside of daytime hours.

ACTIVATION RATES & MET DOSE
MET and cardiac arrest call rates by month

Dataset taken from all emergency '777' calls made to Wellington switchboard between Jan 2009 & December 2012. The type of emergency is determined by which emergency response the caller requested.

Mandatory MET calling was introduced in June 2011 accounting for the rapid rise in this type of call. International literature suggests it may take several years of increased MET call rates before a sustained decrease in cardiac arrest rates occurs.

MET and cardiac arrest calls by dose

Dataset taken from all emergency '777' calls made to Wellington switchboard between Jan 2009 & December 2012. The type of emergency is determined by which emergency response the caller requested.

This chart shows the same dataset as above but expressed as call rates per 1000 eligible hospital admissions. This standardized approach to 'MET dosing' allows comparisons with data from other hospitals. It also allows assessment as to whether enough MET calls are being instituted to cause a corresponding decrease in cardiac arrest rates.

MET and cardiac arrest calls by annual totals

Dataset taken from all emergency '777' calls made to Wellington switchboard shown as annual totals.

This chart shows the effect of mandatory MET calling introduced in June 2011 to most adult in-patient areas. The decline in cardiac arrest rates is more apparent when viewed annually.

REFERENCES

  • Buist, M., Harrison, J., Abaloz, E., & van Dyke, S. (2007). Six year audit of cardiac arrests and medical emergency team calls in an Australian outer metropolitan teaching hospital. BMJ (Clinical research ed), 335(7631), 1210–1212. doi:10.1136/bmj.39385.534236.47
  • Jones, D., Bellomo, R., & Devita, M. A. (2009). Effectiveness of the Medical Emergency Team: the importance of dose. Critical care (London, England), 13(5), 313. doi:10.1186/cc7996
  • Jones, D. A., Devita, M. A., & Bellomo, R. (2011). Rapid-response teams. The New England journal of medicine, 365(2), 139–146. doi:10.1056/NEJMra0910926

This page was last updated on Friday, 03 August 2018 16:14:24

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