Is there a role for patients and their relatives in escalating clinical deterioration in hospital? A systematic review.

Albutt AK, O'Hara JK, Conner MT, Fletcher SJ, Lawton RJ. Health Expect. 2016 Oct 26; [Epub ahead of print].

This systematic review examined whether patient and family member activation of rapid response teams improved recognition of clinical deterioration. Studies demonstrated that patients and family members did not overwhelm rapid response capacity with frequent activations, but they did activate rapid response to convey concerns beyond clinical deterioration. The authors suggest further study is needed to determine how to best engage patients and families to detect clinical deterioration early.

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