Grant: Project Grant

Up to 80% of critically ill patients who receive life-support in an intensive care unit (ICU) will survive. Yet, survival is frequently complicated by a constellation of new or worsening physical, cognitive and psychiatric complications, termed post-intensive care syndrome. The emerging evidence paints a challenging picture of complex, long-term complications that are often unrecognized or untreated, and culminate in substantial dependence on acute care services. ICU survivors face a bewildering number of care transitions - from ICU to hospital ward to rehabilitation, to long-term care, nursing facilities or home, often getting lost in the shuffle. The most incredible finding is that the family satisfaction of patients who survive the ICU is significantly lower than the family satisfaction of patients who die. For satisfaction to be higher with death suggests a profound gap in post-ICU care of survivors. Indeed, half of ICU survivors are readmitted to hospital within a year of making it home. Though the tremendous cost of cure necessitates follow-up care, in British Columbia there are no programs to address the needs of patients suffering post-intensive care syndrome. The goal of the proposed research is to transform the community care of survivors of critical illness by a synthesis of relevant clinical and healthcare service interventions with a collaborative team of knowledge users, patients and senior healthcare leaders, that will form the core component of a new integrated community service. An integrated knowledge translation process revolves around an iterative series of team meetings, with findings reported, research questions refined in real time and the team engaged to apply and disseminate the knowledge generated by this research.