March 2005

U.S. adopts Australian initiative

Hospitals in the United States are adopting a life-saving program pioneered in Australia after successful results at Melbourne’s Austin Hospital.

The proactive Medical Emergency Team (MET) is a group of specialists called in to assess patients displaying the first signs of major complications such as heart attack.

The Austin Hospital conducted the first controlled MET study in 1999.

Since its introduction, early MET intervention at the Austin has reduced the number of cardiac arrests by 66 per cent and surgical patient deaths by 37 per cent.

The success of the MET system is receiving widespread attention in the U.S. with The Wall Street Journal coining the term ‘hospital SWAT teams’.

A leading U.S. healthcare reform organisation, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, now aims to introduce the MET system in 1,000 hospitals throughout the States.

Austin Hospital Intensive Care Specialist Professor Rinaldo Bellomo, who headed the MET-controlled study, will be guest speaker at a U.S. conference in June for hospitals implementing the system.

‘The MET is designed to prevent medical crises by attending to the patient at the first signs of acute unwellness, rather than resuscitating them after their breathing or heart has already stopped—when it is often too late,’ Professor Bellomo said.

The team, which is paged at the first signs of an acute unwellness, includes the on-duty intensive care unit (ICU) registrar, a medical registrar and an ICU trained nurse.

‘The success of MET at Austin Hospital is due to overwhelming support and adoption of the system by staff,’ Professor Bellomo said.

‘Nurses have said to me that they had wanted a system like this for a long time.’