Building Patient and Family Partnerships in Care
“Condition H” (Help) – Calling the Rapid Response Team

Friday, May 30, 2008

Winter Haven Hospital is committed to providing excellent health care. We believe that this is best accomplished through teamwork. We ask that you be part of our team when visiting your loved one. You can help us provide safer care by learning about a resource that is now available to you.

This resource is called “Condition H.” The “H” stands for help. We have created this process to encourage family members to alert the Rapid Response Team in case of an emergency. The Rapid Response Team is a group of clinicians. These clinicians can rapidly bring advanced assessment and management skills to a patient when his or her condition may be worsening. The team will act before the patient’s condition becomes unstable. The Rapid Response Team is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

When to Call

We recognize that it is the family member who best knows their loved one and their usual state of health and function. Therefore, you can detect when a change is occurring. Call a Condition H when:

• You detect a subtle change or intuitively think that something just does not seem quite right
• There is a noticeable medical change in the patient and you feel that the healthcare team is not recognizing the concern

How to Activate Condition H

To access Condition H you need only to pick up any telephone in the hospital and dial 83. An emergency operator will answer immediately. Tell the operator you are activating Condition H and state the location (room number).

Partners in Care

In offering our families the Condition H option, we recognize and value your active participation in the care of your loved one. If you have any questions, please discuss them with one of our healthcare providers.