Institute of Medicine concluded that between 44 000 and 98 000 deaths per year occur in hospitals in the United States as a result of errors. Since publication, these data have captured the attention of the nation, 2,3 resulting in aggressive calls for further research, 4,5 regulatory interventions, [6][7][8] third-party payer involvement, 9,10 and health care organization initiatives to improve this situation. One such initiative, promoted by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement known as the 100 000 Lives Campaign, recommended 6 strategies to decrease the number of preventable inpatient deaths in the United States by 100 000 during the period between December 2004 and June 2006. 11 One of these 6 recommended strategies was the implementation of a rapid response team (RRT).An RRT, also known as a medical response team or medical emergency team, is a multidisciplinary team most frequently consisting of intensive care For editorial comment see p 2311.

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With implementation of Composite Resuscitation Team Training, survival to discharge after pediatric cardiopulmonary arrest improved, as did code team performance. Demonstration of improved survival after adjusting for code team adherence to resuscitation standards suggests that this may be a valuable resuscitation training program. Further studies are needed to determine causality and generalizability.

Electronic mandatory IRS data entry and an initiative to understand and address reporting barriers and motivators were associated with sustained increases in the adverse event reporting rate. These strategies to minimize underreporting enhance IRS value for learning and may be generalizable.

Comparative analysis of pediatric patients undergoing cardiopulmonary resuscitation in three different ICU settings demonstrated a significant variation in baseline, preevent, and event characteristics. Although outcomes vary significantly among the three different ICUs, it was difficult to ascertain if this difference was due to variation in the disease process or variation in the location of the patient.