Post-ICU Care: Why, What, When and How? ISCCM Position Statement.

How to cite this article: Ramakrishnan N, Abraham BK, Barokar R, Chanchalani G, Jagathkar G, Shetty RM, et al. Post-ICU Care: Why, What, When and How? ISCCM Position Statement. Indian J Crit Care Med 2024;28(S2):S279-S287.

Interviews with primary care physicians identify unmet transition needs after ICU.

AIM: We sought to explore unmet needs in transitions of care for critical illness survivors that concern primary care physicians. FINDINGS: Semi-structured interviews with primary care physicians identified three categories of concerns about unmet transition needs after patients' ICU stays: patients' understanding of their ICU stay and potential complications, treatments or support needs not covered by insurance, and starting and maintaining needed rehabilitation and assistance across transitions of care. CONCLUSION: Given current constraints of access to coordinated post-ICU care, efforts to identify and address the post-hospitalization needs of critical illness survivors may be improved through coordinated work across the health system.

Experiences, opinions and expectations of health care providers towards an intensive care unit follow-up clinic: Qualitative study and online survey.

OBJECTIVES: Independent of the underlying disease, intensive care unit survivors often suffer from cognitive, physical and mental impairments, also known as post-intensive care syndrome (PICS). Specific follow-up services are recommended for these patients. This study aims to capture the perspectives of health care providers on the development of the first intensive care unit follow-up-clinic in Germany. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: A qualitative study with six focus groups (n = 41) and six expert interviews, followed by a quantitative survey was conducted, involving nine different professions. Qualitative and quantitative data were analysed using thematic analysis and descriptive statistics, respectively. FINDINGS: Participants described aftercare of former intensive care unit patients as complex and appreciated the idea of an intensive care unit follow-up clinic to improve continuity of care and multidisciplinary collaboration. The favoured model combined diagnostics and targeted referral of patients to specialists and therapists with the provision of information. In the survey, participants disagreed on how to implement this referral system but agreed that assessments should be multidimensional. CONCLUSION: The necessity of and important criteria for the design of an intensive care unit follow-up clinic were identified. We will integrate these data with further evidence to develop a concept for a complex intervention.