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MET Response
December 11, 2007
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When nurses sense something isn’t quite right with their patient…they call in the
medical emergency team. Dr. Marilyn Cole is a Medical Director for Intensive Care
Services
with Lee Memorial Health System. She says the team is made up of a handful
of specialists. “An ICU nurse and a respiratory therapist and sometimes a critical
care mid-level and an additional nursing supervisor respond to something that the
nurse felt might be going on.” Historically special medical teams were called when
a code blue occurred. That’s when a patients stops breathing or goes into cardiac
arrest. “It’s an emergency. It’s broadcasted through the hospital. The intensive
care nurses come and emergency room physicians respond and they have several minutes
to get to the patient,” says Dr. Cole.
But the main role of the MET team is to have an organized group of professionals
at the patient’s bedside before an emergency occurs. Dr. Cole says the system is,
“really an early warning so that we’re trying to find out before something happens
how do we respond to those patients and prevent Code Blue’s from happening on the
floor.” She says the MET team also allows the nurse another layer of expertise on
the floor. “You don’t have to be in the intensive care to have an intensive care
group come and evaluate you. I think it’s a level of comfort for the families also.
If they notice that there’s something, a change in status, they can tell their nurse
who can immediately notify the Medical Emergency Team.” MET teams are currently
active at Healthpark Medical Center, Lee Memorial Hospital and Cape Coral Hospital.
The MET team at Lee Memorial Hospital has received awards for significantly decreasing
the amount of code blue calls at that facility.
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