Supraglottic airway device placement by respiratory therapists.

Objective: Respiratory Therapists (RTs) are some of the first staff to arrive at in-hospital incidents where cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is needed, yet at some facilities, their ability to intubate is limited by hospital scope of practice. During the intubation process, CPR is often interrupted which could potentially increase the likelihood of adverse patient outcomes. Training RTs to secure the airway using non-intubation methods may reduce or eliminate time for CPR interruptions and allow for earlier continuous/uninterrupted chest compressions.

Finding the key to a better code: code team restructure to improve performance and outcomes.

Code teams respond to acute life threatening changes in a patient's status 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If any variable, whether a medical skill or non-medical quality, is lacking, the effectiveness of a code team's resuscitation could be hindered. To improve the overall performance of our hospital's code team, we implemented an evidence-based quality improvement restructuring plan.