WAIMEA, Hawai'i — A $1 million grant has enabled North Hawai'i Community Hospital to create a rapid bedside response program aimed at increasing patient safety.

The Big Island community-owned, nonprofit hospital announced the grant last week from Oak Foundation. It will be administered over five years, beginning this year.

The Critical Assessment and Rapid Evaluation program will consist of an experienced team of medical professionals trained in specific, rapid intervention procedures.

The CARE team is deployed to a patient's bedside as soon as any floor staff notes a "trigger sign," such as a drop in blood pressure, or if a team member simply has a hunch the patient is in trouble.

The team is at the bedside within minutes, working to stabilize the patient and potentially save a life.

The team's mission is to significantly decrease the number of "code blue" (cardiac and/or respiratory arrest) instances in the hospital.

"The rapid response team represents tremendous advancement for any hospital, and we are proud that NHCH is among those at the forefront of this movement," said Stan Berry, the hospital's chief executive officer.

"We are on our way to implementing a leading healthcare model, proven nationwide to save lives and improve patient outcomes."

Funding from Oak Foundation will support a CARE team comprising a nurse practitioner or house coordinator, a respiratory therapist, and physicians who will serve as on-call members of the team.

The hospital joins a group of institutions nationwide that have qualified for the funding, and obtained community support and staff alignment necessary to implement such hospital care.

The rapid response team model was developed from a study in Australia, which found having an assessment team respond immediately to unstable patients results in significant reductions in intensive care admissions, lengths of stay and deaths.

NHCH is a 40-bed, full-service, acute-care medical center managed by Adventist Health of Roseville, Calif. It opened in 1996 and serves 35,000 residents and visitors across an area of more than 1,000 square miles.