Medical Emergency Team - MET

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Intensive care is provided for patients whose vital body functions such as breathing, circulation and consciousness are not satisfactory

Today, you as a patient can encounter intensive care even on an ordinary ward. MET -  Medical Emergency Team, consisting of an intensive care doctor and intensive care nurses, has now been introduced in the majority of Sweden hospitals.

Targeted training for healthcare professionals

We know from experience and research that patients who arrive at the ICU with serious medical conditions have frequently already been suffering from impaired body functions such as breathing, blood pressure, pulse and consciousness for several hours or days.
Targeted training for all healthcare professionals and specially designed rating scales for various body functions provides the ward with tools and knowledge for recording and documenting abnormal values in order to rapidly identify and treat failing body functions.

The staff on the ward are able to rapidly react to these alarm signals and take action to improve the situation. This can be likened to the gauges in the cockpit of an aeroplane: if some of them display abnormal values, action is taken immediately before the plane crashes. When certain criteria are met it is possible to get help from the MET team.

The intensive care doctor, together with the intensive care nurses, assess the patient together with the doctor responsible for the patient and nurses on the ward and can propose stabilizing measures, which will be carried out on the ward, in order to preclude the need for intensive care or, where it is assessed that there is a sufficient need for care, can immediately take the patient to the intensive care unit. The MET team may also, in consultation with the doctor responsible for the patient and the patient/relatives, discuss what level of care is appropriate.

Participating in the statistics as a patient

Even if you are not being treated on the intensive care ward, but nonetheless come into contact with the MET team, certain information recorded in the medical record will be registered in the Swedish Intensive Care Register. By participating in the National Quality Register you will help to improve the care provided. The more people who participate, the more statistically reliable the results will be. We then make use of the results for the purpose of carrying out improvements. The quality registers contribute to new knowledge concerning the best treatment strategy and care in a large number of areas. The quality registers collect data on treatment and outcomes for patients nationwide.

Opting not to participate

The information about you stored in the quality register is confidential and treated in the same way as medical records. The information will be removed when it is no longer required. You can have your data removed from the register or opt for it not to be registered.