Integrating a multidisciplinary mobility programme into intensive care practice (IMMPTP): a multicentre collaborative.

BACKGROUND: ICU immobility can contribute to physical deconditioning, increased ICU and hospital length of stay and complications post discharge. Despite evidence of the beneficial outcomes of early mobility, many ICUs and providers lack necessary processes and resources to effectively integrate early mobility into their daily practice. OBJECTIVE: To create a progressive mobility initiative that will help ICU teams to address key cultural, process and resource opportunities in order to integrate early mobility into daily care practices. METHODS: An initiative to integrate the latest evidence on mobility practice into current ICU culture in 13 ICUs in eight hospitals within the US was launched. A user-friendly, physiologically grounded evidence-based mobility continuum was designed and implemented. Appropriate education and targeted messaging was used to engage stakeholders. To support and sustain the implementation process, mechanisms including coaching calls and various change interventions were offered to modify staffs' practice behaviour. Qualitative data was collected at two time points to assess cultural and process issues around mobility and provided feedback to the stakeholders to support change. Quantitative date on ventilator days and timing of physical therapy consultation was measured. RESULTS: Qualitative reports of the mobility programme participants suggest that the methods used in the collaborative approach improved both the culture and team focus on the process of mobility. There were no significant differences demonstrated in any of the mobility intervention group measurement however, a reduction in ventilator days (3.0days pre vs. 2.1 days post) approached significance (p=0.06). CONCLUSION: This multi-centre, ICU collaborative has shown that improvements in team culture, communication and resources can improve adoption of early mobility in ICU patients.

The intensive care unit family meeting: making it happen.

The intensive care unit (ICU) family meeting is an important forum for discussion about the patient's condition, prognosis, and care preferences; for listening to the family's concerns; and for decision making about appropriate goals of treatment. For patients, families, clinicians, and health care systems, the benefits of early and effective communication through these meetings have been clearly established. Yet, evidence suggests that family meetings still fail to occur in a timely way for most patients in ICUs. In this article, we address the "quality gap" between knowledge and practice with respect to regular implementation of family meetings. We first examine factors that may serve as barriers to family meetings. We then share practical strategies that may be helpful in overcoming some of these barriers. Finally, we describe performance improvement initiatives by ICUs in different parts of the country that have achieved striking successes in making family meetings happen.