This is the first study to include all hospital staff (clinical and non-clinical) in an evaluation of the medical emergency system.

The inclusion of all hospital staff in the medical emergency team training creates a paradigm for future studies on medical emergency teams.

We identified the need for members of the RRT to improve their non-technical skills.

We identified the need for more hospital staff to obtain basic life support certification.

We identified the potential causes of failure to activate the RRT as lack of knowledge of the activation criteria, fear of criticism, and excessive workload.