Integration of a difficult airway response team into a hospital emergency response system

Abstract

Hospital-wide emergency response teams have been an area of development for several decades. Highly specialized to address emergent needs, they mimic the cardiac-pulmonary arrest teams established at hospitals nationwide, such as heart attack, brain attack, medical emergency, rapid response, and difficult airway response teams (DART). The DART at Johns Hopkins Hospital is a collaboration of the Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, General Surgery, and Emergency Medicine departments. This successful model may be used by other hospitals to establish improved and comprehensive care of the difficult airway patient.

Keywords: Difficult airway patient; Difficult airway response team; Medical emergency teams; Multidisciplinary; Rapid response system; Rapid response teams.