Early-warning system halves in-hospital heart attacks
The South Infirmary-Victoria University Hospital (SIVUH) in Cork became the first Irish hospital to introduce an early-warning âscore systemâ for patients at risk of cardiac arrest last year.
It was combined with the introduction of a new medical emergency team (MET), which was tasked specifically to deal rapidly with these cases. Since the system was introduced in July 2006, in-hospital cardiac arrests have dropped by 46% and survival rates have jumped from the international norm of 17% to 52%.
