A1. Patient Acuity Response Team will foster strong collaboration between healthcare professionals and patients’ families to enhance patient outcomes and satisfaction

A1. Patient Acuity Response Team will foster strong collaboration between healthcare professionals and patients’ families to enhance patient outcomes and satisfaction

A1. Patient Acuity Response Team will foster strong collaboration between healthcare

professionals and patients’ families to enhance patient outcomes and satisfaction.

A1a. ‘See attached Verification Form.’

A1b. Organizational Sponsor Discussion

I decided to present a detailed outline about implementing a Patient Acuity Response

Team, or P.A.R.T., to my Director of Nursing, who oversees the Medical-Surgical, Progressive

Care, and Intensive Care units, and the Emergency Department Director. The reasoning behind

the need for implementing this protocol is to ensure that the voices of families are taken

seriously. Patients’ families know them better than any healthcare professional and can notice

inconsistencies with their loved one's physical and mental well-being faster than anyone else. My

director agreed that this protocol would help decrease the time it took for a healthcare

professional to spot a problem and decrease the stigma in the hospital that no one listens to the

family's concerns. It could potentially decrease unexpected deaths from missed signs and

symptoms. The two teams we have implemented at the hospital are “Code Blue” and “Rapid

Response,” but neither addresses a family member's concern. We discussed the key players that

will be needed for the team, such as a lead registered nurse, the current nurse practitioner or a

physician assistant, a respiratory therapist, a social worker, and the patient's family member.

These members will collaborate with family representatives to develop care plans and respond to

alerts. We discussed training and annual competency education for each of the team members.

We discussed the time it would take from activation to acknowledgment of services needed