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Does intermediate care improve patient outcomes or reduce costs?

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Abstract

ICUs are an essential but expensive part of all modern hospitals. With increasingly limited healthcare funding, methods to reduce expenditure without negatively influencing patient outcomes are, therefore, of interest. One possible solution has been the development of ‘intermediate care units’, which provide more intensive monitoring and patient management with higher nurse:patient ratios than the general ward but less than is offered in the ICU. However, although such units have been introduced in many hospitals, there is relatively little published, especially prospective, evidence to support the benefits of this approach on costs or patient outcomes. We review the available data and suggest that, where possible, a larger unit with combined intermediate care and intensive care beds in one location may be preferable in terms of greater flexibility and efficiency.

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Abbreviations

IMCU:

Intermediate care unit

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Intensive Care, Erasme Hospital, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, 1070, Belgium

    Jean-Louis Vincent

  2. Program in Trauma, Emergency, and Critical Care, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center, Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, M4N 3 M5, Canada

    Gordon D Rubenfeld

Authors
  1. Jean-Louis Vincent
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  2. Gordon D Rubenfeld
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Correspondence to Jean-Louis Vincent.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Vincent, JL., Rubenfeld, G.D. Does intermediate care improve patient outcomes or reduce costs?. Crit Care 19, 89 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13054-015-0813-0

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