Emergency situations do not just occur outside the hospital - life-threatening situations can also take place in patient rooms. Aside from the intensive care units, this also pertains to general hospital wards, where patients are not as closely monitored. Nursing staffs need to pay special attention in this case because emergencies sometimes announce themselves with certain symptoms.
In this interview with MEDICA-tradefair.com, Prof. Thea Koch talks about how nursing staffs in wards might possibly be able to recognize imminent emergencies, how medical emergency teams fly into action and how hospitals can implement emergency management.
Prof. Koch, German hospitals annually handle approximately 93,000 cardiac arrests. Are critically ill patients actual safe in these settings?
Prof. Thea Koch: The statement that one is not safe in hospitals is certainly not correct, but there is a need for action when it comes to emergency management. One European study showed that the patient mortality rate after surgical treatment is on average at around four percent and at 2.5 percent in Germany. Having said that, patients who die are frequently not located in intensive care units but rather in general hospital wards. Here, symptoms that point to a worsening of a patient’s condition are not always recognized in time. This is why we need so-called medical emergency teams or METs, who are immediately called in and are able to intervene at an early stage if the patient’s condition worsens. ...
Read the complete interview with Prof. Koch at MEDICA-tradefair.com!