4 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J U L Y 2 0 1 9
You want staff mem-
bers who rush to help
during an MH event to
arrive at the patient's
bedside with a plan
and a purpose. The
clinical leaders at
UNC Rex Healthcare
in Raleigh, N.C.,
developed role cards for the different personnel who respond to
the call for help no surgical team wants to make. The laminated
cards, which hang on each MH cart in the hospital, include spe-
cific directives for various members of the response team. For
example:
• Medication nurses bring the MH cart to the patient's bedside
and prepare emergency medications for administration,
including vials of dantrolene.
• Dantrolene nurses reconstitute and administer the appropri-
ate doses.
• Cooling nurses fill plastic bags with ice and pack them around
the patient.
• Charge nurses notify clinical managers about the MH crisis
and gather available caregivers to help with the response.
UNC REX also created an MH checklist to guide the staff during
a crisis, charts that contain weight-based dantrolene dosage
guidelines and an MH documentation record that staff fill out dur-
Assigned Roles
Help Save Lives
• READ AND REACT Task cards help organize your staff's efforts when an
MH crisis hits.
Jonathan
Rodriguez/UNC
REX
Healthcare
EMERGENCY RESPONSE
