Despite conflicting evidence of their benefit, rapid response teams have been widely implemented in hospitals to address failure to rescue patients whose clinical status is worsening. This quasi-experimental study compared the trajectory of clinical deterioration among pediatric patients at an urban, tertiary care children's hospital before and after implementing a rapid response intervention. Over a 5-year period, the authors found that rapid response teams significantly improved the trajectory of clinical deterioration compared to the pre-intervention trajectory. They did not find statistically significant differences in rates of cardiac arrests or deaths. An accompanying editorial contends that measuring the trajectory of clinical deterioration does not adequately inform the effectiveness of rapid response systems.