Review: Continuous Monitoring to Detect Failure to Rescue in Adult Postoperative Inpatients

Failure to rescue, or the unexpected death of a patient due to a preventable complication, is a nationally documented problem with numerous and multifaceted contributing factors. These factors include the frequency and method of collecting vital sign data, response to abnormal vital signs, and delays in the escalation of care for general ward patients who are showing signs of clinical deterioration. Patients' clinical deterioration can be complicated by concurrent secondary factors, including opioid abuse/dependence, being uninsured, or having sleep-disordered breathing. Using the Johns Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice Model, this integrative review synthesizes 43 research and nonresearch sources of evidence. Published between 2001 and 2017, these sources of evidence focus on failure to rescue, the multifaceted contributing factors to failure to rescue, and how continuous vital sign monitoring could ameliorate failure to rescue and its causes. Recommendations from the sources of evidence have been divided into system, structural, or technological categories.