A Rapid Response Team, or RRT, will now will be in place 24 hours a day, seven days a week at the hospital.

When a patient goes into cardiac or respiratory arrest, the RRT will be called to the patient's room for immediate assistance. When the team responds, members then will decide what further care is required. The team consists of five different critical members.

"An intensive care nurse, a respiratory therapist, an I.V. therapist and one of the resident physicians respond," said Dr. Dennis Niess. "It's also a very good teaching experience because they can then go over the findings with the regular nurse on the case to they are able to recognize those in the future, also."

Niess said since the team began operating, the hospital has slightly surpassed its goal of reducing cardiac and respiratory arrests by 30 percent. Wheeling Hospital is one of 16 hospitals in the state and one of 23-hundred, nationwide, to join the Institute for Healthcare Improvement RRT campaign.