A Survey of Hospitals That Participated in a Statewide Collaborative to Implement and Sustain Rapid Response Teams

To determine the level of sustainability of rapid response teams (RRTs) among a group of hospitals that participated in a statewide collaborative to implement and sustain RRTs.

Fifty-six hospitals located in a southeastern state in the United States participated in a statewide 9-month collaborative that provided organization leaders with resources to implement and sustain RRTs. Thirty-three of these hospitals completed the electronic survey. Two hospitals were excluded because of missing data.

The RRT-Institutionalization Scale (RRT-IS), adapted from the Level of Institutionalization Scale, measured the degree of institutionalization (i.e., passages, routines, and niche saturation) across four subsystems: production, maintenance, supportive, and managerial.

Thirty-one hospitals participated (response rate 55%). Rapid response team sustainability levels ranged from 1.0 to 5.98 (mean = 3.78, 95% CI = 3.40-4.17). The highest sustainability score was reported in the managerial subsystem (median = 5.3, IQR = 4.5-7.33), and the lowest score was reported in the supportive subsystem (median = 1.0, IQR = 1.0-2.0).

Rapid response team sustainability levels varied across hospitals in the collaborative. Different levels of sustainability were also observed across organizational subsystems. The lack of resources, staff, and dedicated funds hampered organizations' sustainability efforts.