Announcement courtesy of Kim Morris, Department of Medicine, September 29, 2021
Lauren Raff, MD, assistant professor in the Department of Surgery, and Evan Raff, MD, associate professor of medicine in the division of hospital of medicine were awarded an NC TraCS Health Equity Award to improve rapid response outcomes in patients whose primary language is Spanish.
The project “Reducing Health Inequities in the Rapid Response System for Hospitalized Patients that Self-identify their Primary Language as Spanish” demonstrated that Spanish speaking patients are sicker when a rapid response is called on them (compared with English speaking patients) and that they have worse rapid response outcomes (death, ICU transfer). The project proposes to implement a rapid response consult team that will conduct pre-emptive consults for patients whose primary language is Spanish, who are at high risk for clinical deterioration based on a disease severity scoring system in Epic.