title: Development and implementation of an ICU quality improvement checklist.
abstract: Hospitals, especially their intensive care units, are not particularly safe for patients. Life-threatening mistakes and omissions in care can and do occur. To deter omissions and mistakes wherever possible, our medical intensive care team developed a checklist of care issues that must be addressed daily for every patient in our intensive care unit. The checklist augments our daily, multidisciplinary quality rounds and informs all personnel when important items have been missed. It is too soon to tell whether the checklist has had an impact on our survival rate or length of stay, but we have documented clear improvement in our attention to these core intensive care issues. In addition, our team's collegiality and team bonding are enhanced by using an evidence-based tool to achieve our care goals. We share our checklist, so that others can use and/or adapt it in their pursuit of optimal care for their critically ill patients.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of Kansas Medical Center, 3901 Rainbow Blvd, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA. ssimpson3@kumc.edu
authors.forename: Steven Q
authors.initials: SQ
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.forename: Douglas A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Peterson
authors.forename: Amy R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: O'Brien-Ladner
mesh_terms: D000046:Academic Medical Centers; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003422:Critical Care / Q000592:standards*; D016638:Critical Illness / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy; D004282:Documentation; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005568:Forms and Records Control; D006801:Humans; D007615:Kansas / Q000453:epidemiology; D007902:Length of Stay; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000517:prevention & control; D020380:Needs Assessment; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration; D016730:Program Development; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017751:Safety Management / Q000458:organization & administration*; D015996:Survival Rate; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000458:organization & administration*