My father was admitted to the hospital for bleeding from an unknown source before telemetry units and rapid response teams existed. Several nights after admission, he had atrial fibrillation with rapid ventricular response develop and was swiftly transferred to the intensive care unit for monitoring and treatment. Later he recounted what he thought he heard the nurses say during the transfer— that if his heart rate went over 100 beats per minute, he would die. That was very scary for him and kept him watching the numbers on the monitor in fear.

As our colleagues Ramos et al describe, patients can be admitted to the telemetry, intermediate care, or even medical-surgical units and experience some type of deterioration of their condition requiring transfer to the intensive care unit. Although we have instituted swift interventions and processes to manage this transition medically, the issue of how these transitions are communicated to...

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