{"id":3843,"date":"2016-04-06T12:54:35","date_gmt":"2016-04-06T16:54:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/52.229.122.34\/en\/?p=3843"},"modified":"2021-02-17T11:23:57","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T16:23:57","slug":"race-team-icu-on-wheels-quickly-responds-to-patients-in-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/uncategorized\/race-team-icu-on-wheels-quickly-responds-to-patients-in-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"RACE team \u2013 \u201cICU on wheels\u201d \u2013 quickly responds to patients in crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Respiratory Therapist Graham Morrison (left), RN Karen Leblanc and Dr. Mike Hartwick have provided critical care to patients, visitors and staff in crisis in every corner of The Ottawa Hospital. Photo by Michelle Dickie.<\/em><\/p>\n

What do you do when a patient\u2019s condition is deteriorating quickly or when someone in the hospital lobby looks like they might be having a heart attack? What if a patient\u2019s daughter really isn\u2019t sure what a transfer to the ICU will mean for her mother?<\/p>\n

You call in the experts: the Rapid Assessment of Critical Events \u2013 or RACE \u2013 team, a group of intensive care experts who respond quickly and skilfully to in-hospital crises.<\/p>\n

Ten years after its creation, the \u201cICU on wheels\u201d has become an integral part of The Ottawa Hospital. Composed of an Intensive Care Unit doctor, an ICU nurse and a respiratory therapist, the team has provided critical care to patients, visitors and staff in crisis in every corner of the hospital.<\/p>\n

The team was founded to support inpatient units when a patient began to show warning signs of worsening illness or cardiac arrest but, over the years, the team has evolved to support other roles in patient care as well. One of these roles, said General Campus team lead Dr. Michael Hartwick, is that RACE team members will counsel patients and families about intensive care.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started noticing that the RACE team had a real role in speaking with patients and families about their goals and values, and what the ICU really could offer,\u201d he said. \u201cOur role is initially to resuscitate \u2013 we also recognize there is a role for us to play in discussing whether the resuscitation is a good idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Registered Nurse Sue Guillemette (left), Respiratory Therapist Luce Gougeon and Dr. John Kim discuss a case on the way to a call. Photo by Michelle Dickie.<\/em><\/p>\n

Because staff members on units know to call the RACE team when they see warning signs, Dr. Hartwick said, he feels the team has made a big difference to patients over the years, lowering the number of cardiac arrests at the hospital and stabilizing patients on the unit or quickly moving them to the ICU. In the next few days, the RACE team then follows up with patients to make sure their condition isn\u2019t worsening again.<\/p>\n

The team works closely with staff on inpatient units so that they can better understand each patient\u2019s history and care plan. In turn, RACE team members help unit staff develop skills so that they\u2019re more comfortable providing critical care on the unit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be a bad feeling if things aren’t going well, so we\u2019re there to support the unit staff,\u201d Dr. Hartwick said. \u201cThey can get help and work with us to take care of their patient.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Many viewpoints and collaboration are keys to RACE team success<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the RACE team responds to a call from a unit, having health-care providers from three different professions on the team is invaluable, said Dr. Hartwick.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as we all try to be on the same page, professions tend to communicate differently,\u201d he said. \u201cBetween the three of us, we can communicate more effectively with teams on the floor during a crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having three highly-trained people with different ideas and perspectives in the room helps the team to consider many different sides of the patient\u2019s care, said Dr. Hartwick.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all see things through a different lens, and that\u2019s a benefit to the team,\u201d he said. \u201cThis doesn\u2019t work well in isolation. We need to collaborate with the units and with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Respiratory Therapist Graham Morrison (left), RN Karen Leblanc and Dr. Mike Hartwick have provided critical care to patients, visitors and staff in crisis in every corner of The Ottawa Hospital. Photo by Michelle Dickie. What do you do when a patient\u2019s condition is deteriorating quickly or when someone in the hospital lobby looks like they might […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":3844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}