Dive Brief:
- Post-intensive care syndrome is becoming more common among ICU patients, with as many as 80 percent of ICU survivors suffering cognitive or brain dysfunction; ICU patients must also be guarded against sepsis, the leading cause of death in American hospitals..
- To head these problems off, many hospitals are giving patients breaks from heavy sedation and constant ventilation, watching them closely for signs of delirium and getting patients up and walking -- as well doing in-ICU rehabilitation.
- A Vanderbilt University study suggests the when survivors of critical illness get physical therapy and rehab were compared with those that didn't, the group receiving therapy and rehab scored better on tasks with multiple steps; another study indicated that post-ICU patients saw fewer ED visits and hospital readmissions when getting therapy after leaving the ICU.
Dive Insight:
With post-intensive care syndrome proving so common, in-ICU and post-ICU therapy seems as though it should be mandatory, not something patients get sometimes if the doctors are on the right track. Let's hope this story, which originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal, raises the visibility of this approach to ICU care. Given the added incentive that it should lower re-admissioins, jumping on this approach seems like a no-brainer.