title: Improving care of the critically ill: institutional and health-care system approaches.
abstract: Institutional and health-care system approaches complement bedside strategies to improve care of the critically ill. Focusing on the USA and the UK, we discuss seven approaches: education (especially of non-clinical managers, policy-makers, and the public), organisational guidelines, performance reporting, financial and sociobehavioural incentives to health-care professionals and institutions, regulation, legal requirements, and health-care system reorganisation. No single action is likely to have sustained effect and we recommend a combination of approaches. Several recent initiatives that hold promise tie performance reporting to financial incentives. Though performance reporting has been hampered by concerns over cost and accuracy, it remains an essential component and we recommend continued effort in this area. We also recommend more public education and use of organisational guidelines, such as admission criteria and staffing levels in intensive care units. Even if these endeavours are successful, with rising demand for services and continuing pressure to control costs, optimum care of the critically ill will not be realised without a fundamental reorganisation of services. In both the USA and UK, we recommend exploration of regionalised care, akin to US state trauma systems, and greater use of physician-extenders, such as nurse practitioners, to provide enhanced access to specialist care for critical illness.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Research, Investigation and Systems Modeling of Acute Illness (CRISMA) Laboratory, Department of Critical Care Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. angusdc@ccm.upmc.edu
authors.forename: Derek C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Angus
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Black
mesh_terms: D003422:Critical Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D016638:Critical Illness / Q000628:therapy*; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards; D007591:Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations; D007882:Legislation, Hospital; D008485:Medical Audit; D009042:Motivation; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010564:Personnel, Hospital / Q000193:education; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D006113:United Kingdom; D014481:United States