Intermediate care to intensive care triage: A quality improvement project to reduce mortality.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Medical patients whose care needs exceed what is feasible on a general ward, but who do not clearly require critical care, may be admitted to an intermediate care unit (IMCU). Some IMCU patients deteriorate and require medical intensive care unit (MICU) admission. In 2012, staff in the Johns Hopkins IMCU expressed concern that patient acuity and the threshold for MICU admission were too high. Further, shared triage decision-making between residents and supervising physicians did not consistently occur.

Methods

To improve our triage process, we used a 4Es quality improvement framework (engage, educate, execute, evaluate) to (1) educate residents and fellows regarding principles of triage and (2) facilitate real-time communication between MICU residents conducting tria

SUBMITTER: Hager DN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5733724 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature