Outcome-based clinical indicators for intensive care medicine.
The clinical indicator is a tool used to monitor the quality of health care. Its use in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is desirable for many reasons: the maintenance of minimum standards, the development of best practice and the delivery of cost-effective health care. The utility of clinical indicators in ICU is limited by the lack of universal, robust, transparent, evidence-based and risk-adjusted measures of quality, and the difficulties in defining "quality care" and "good outcome". Monitoring of adverse events, system descriptors, and resource indicators is valuable but they have a limited relationship to the quality of care. ICU mortality prediction models provide a global measure of quality and, despite their inherent deficiencies, remain one of the most robust and useful clinical indicators.
Critical Care Department, The Northern Hospital, Epping, Victoria.
G
G
Duke
J
J
Santamaria
F
F
Shann
P
P
Stow
D019985:Benchmarking / Q000379:methods*; D003422:Critical Care / Q000592:standards*; D003625:Data Collection; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000592:standards*; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000592:standards*