The hazards of drawing conclusions from before-and-after studies of system-level interventions: knowing may not be enough.

摘要

In today's health care system, faced with powerful evidence of poor quality and high and relatively static rates of errors, the impulse to "just do it," a modern, Madison Avenue version of Goethe's sentiment, can be irresistible. The challenges of knowing when to apply information vs knowing when we know enough are most aptly demonstrated in the rapid response system (RRS). The RRS, also known as a rapid response team, critical care outreach team, or medical emergency team, was first introduced in the early part of the past decade by hospitals in the United States and Australia.