Feasibility of accelerated code team activation with code button triggered smartphone notification.

Area of Science:

• Medical Informatics
• Emergency Medicine
• Clinical Systems Implementation

Background:

• Rapid intervention is crucial for improving patient outcomes during in-hospital cardiac arrest.
• Current methods for alerting medical teams can be delayed, impacting response times.
• Disseminating patient-specific data promptly aids in targeted treatment during emergencies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To decrease the time to code team activation.
• To enhance the dissemination of patient-specific data to responding teams.
• To facilitate more targeted and effective treatments during critical events.

Main Methods:

• A system mapping code blue buttons to patients via the electronic medical record was developed.
• Button activation sent patient data (diagnosis, airway status, labs) to responder smartphones and triggered a hospital alert.
• The system was piloted on seven inpatient units, comparing activation times to traditional overhead pages.

Main Results:

• The code button was used for 34.3% of cardiac arrest events.
• Smartphone notifications arrived a median of 78 seconds before overhead pages.
• No significant differences were observed in time to adrenaline administration or survival to discharge.

Conclusions:

• Implementation of a smartphone-based code button system effectively reduced code team activation time.
• The system shows promise for improving emergency response efficiency in hospitals.
• Larger studies are required to definitively assess the impact on patient survival and other clinical outcomes.