Evaluation of Medical Emergency Team Activation in Surgical Wards

Purpose A review was performed to determine the frequency of activating medical emergency teams (MET) in surgical wards, so that resource allocation could be optimized. Methods A retrospective observational study was performed to determine the time and frequency when MET were deployed (N = 465) to patients (n = 387) who were admitted to the surgical ward, from March 2013 to July 2016 due to emergency situations. Results Of the 465 MET activations, 8 did not incur any further intervention. The review showed an average of 151 minutes from onset of symptoms to MET activation, and an average of 110 minutes until intervention (additional diagnosis / treatment). The number of MET activations increased year by year from 2013 to 2016. The transfer of patients to the intensive care units also increased from 34 in 2013, to 82 in 2016. The lowest number of MET activations occurred between 04:00 and 05:00, but there was no difference in the number of MET activations between day and night. However, MET activation in response to acute respiratory distress was significantly higher during the nighttime (p = 0.003). Conclusion Patients admitted to a surgical ward have more serious complications. This study showed that the use of MET in surgical wards has increased year by year, and the frequency of calls between day and night was not different, except higher MET activations observed at night in patients with acute respiratory distress.