Medical Emergency Team

Medical Emergency Team

Early recognition of deterioration and timely intervention are crucial to good outcomes in critical illness. It was once typical for in-hospital emergency response teams to be activated only in the event of a patient suffering cardiac arrest. Research has shown that many cardiac arrests are preceded by clear signs of deterioration and can potentially be prevented. For these reasons, the Medical Emergency Team (MET) was developed and introduced into practice at Liverpool Hospital in 1990.

The MET system aims is to identify seriously ill patients early to allow intervention before a cardiac arrest takes place. This is achieved by using a set of calling criteria that all staff are familiar with. The criteria are physiologic changes in a patient’s condition and if any of the criteria are met an emergency response is triggered and the MET assesses the patient. The MET consists of an Intensive Care doctor, a senior Intensive Care nurse, and a Medical Registrar who have the advanced resuscitation skills necessary to respond to a medical emergency. The team is available to 24-hours, seven days a week.

The effectiveness of the MET system is continuously monitored through the use of outcome indicators. New South Wales Health has introduced “Between the Flags” which builds on the MET system concept, in an attempt to identify deteriorating patients before they reach MET calling criteria.