Defining impact of a rapid response team: qualitative study with nurses, physicians and hospital administrators.
Adoption of rapid response teams (RRTs) has grown dramatically in hospital settings since their promotion in the 2005 100,000 Lives Campaign. Despite limited evidence for their impact and debate about their widespread adoption, research continues to evaluate factors that explain their subjective value to providers. This qualitative study identified morale and teamwork, education, workload, patient care, and hospital administration as five themes contributing to both positive and negative implications. For instance, positive implications included empowering bedside nurses, redistributing nursing workload in real time, and access to expert assistance. Conversely, negative implications were increased tensions between nurses and physician teams and the burden of work on the RRT itself. The authors advocate for these measures to be weighed with similar importance as other clinical outcomes in evaluating the impact of RRTs.