Big Isle hospital gets $1M for care teams

WAIMEA, Hawaii » A $1 million grant is allowing North Hawaii Community Hospital to create a rapid bedside response program aimed at increasing patient safety, according to a hospital news release.

The Big Island community-owned, nonprofit hospital received the grant from the Oak Foundation. It will be administered over five years, beginning this year.

The Critical Assessment and Rapid Evaluation (CARE) program will consist of an experienced team of medical professionals trained in specific, rapid intervention procedures.

The CARE team is deployed to a patient's bedside as soon as any floor staff notes a "trigger sign," such as a drop in blood pressure, or if a team member simply has a hunch the patient is in trouble.

The team is at the bedside within minutes, working to stabilize the patient and potentially save a life.

The team's mission is to significantly decrease the number of "code blue" (cardiac and/or respiratory arrest) instances in the hospital.

"The rapid response team represents tremendous advancement for any hospital, and we are proud that NHCH is among those at the forefront of this movement," said Stan Berry, the hospital's chief executive officer.

"We are on our way to implementing a leading health care model, proven nationwide to save lives and improve patient outcomes."

Funding from the Oak Foundation will support a CARE team comprised of a nurse practitioner or house coordinator, a respiratory therapist and physicians who will serve as on-call members of the team.

The North Hawaii Community Hospital is currently recruiting to fill those positions.

The hospital joins an elite group of institutions across the country that have qualified for the funding and obtained community support and staff alignment necessary to implement such state-of-the-art hospital care.

It is the only one on the Big Island with a CARE team.

Rapid response teams are estimated to be in place in only about 100 U.S. hospitals, but more than half of the 3,000 hospitals that have joined the campaign say they intend to set up the teams.

Rapid response teams are a centerpiece of the national "Campaign to Save 100K Lives."

The rapid response team model was developed from a study in Australia, which found having an assessment team respond immediately to unstable patients results in significant reductions in intensive care admissions, lengths of stay and deaths.

NHCH is a 40-bed, full-service, acute-care medical center managed by Adventist Health of Roseville, Calif. It opened in 1996 and serves 35,000 residents and visitors across an area of more than 1,000 square miles.