New study on rapid response teams

A systematic review and meta-analysis was just published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, concluding thusly:

Conclusion Although RRTs have broad appeal, robust evidence to support their effectiveness in reducing hospital mortality is lacking.

One curious finding was that although RRTs didn't impact mortality they reduced the number of arrests outside the ICU, which may merely mean that RRTs get people to the ICU before they code with no resulting impact on mortality.

As I said before, results such as this don't mean RRTs are useless. Your hospital may benefit if you use the process for all it's worth. Results such as this DO mean that RRTs should not be a performance standard, and no one can make the claim that RRTs save lives.

Related editorial.