New Guidelines to Improve Patient Safety

To improve patient safety and patient outcomes, new U.S. guidelines have been developed that call for a continuum of education in critical care medicine from residency through specialty training and later throughout practice. The guidelines were developed by the American College of Critical Care Medicine and the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM, Des Plaines, IL, USA; www.sccm.org) and were published in the January 2004 issue of Critical Care Medicine.

In the past, U.S. medical education was designed to expose students to the concepts of practice within their chosen medical specialty. Now critical care experts are mandating an outcomes approach and applying education science to medical education. Documented needs assessment followed by multi-modality instruction with documented competency are now required. This approach is expected to result in better doctors and therefore better patient care.

"The training should include a structured process that progressively transfers increasing levels of responsibility for decision-making, ensures continued training in the practical aspects of care, and provides training and experience in the administrative and management functions of the intensive care unit,” said the authors of the task force that developed the guidelines.

New guidelines for patient transport were also developed, which call for every hospital to have a plan for intra- and interhospital transport. This plan should address pretransport communication and coordination, transport personnel and equipment, patient monitoring during transport, and documentation.




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Society of Critical Care Medicine