- Section 1 ICU organization and management
- Part 1.1 The intensive care unit
- Part 1.2 Communication
- Part 1.3 Training
- Part 1.4 Safety and quality
- Chapter 16 Patient safety in the ICU
- Chapter 17 Policies, bundles, and protocols in critical care
- Chapter 18 Managing biohazards and environmental safety
- Chapter 19 Managing ICU staff welfare, morale, and burnout
- Part 1.5 Governance
- Part 1.6 Research
- Part 1.7 Medico-legal and ethical issues
- Part 1.8 Critical illness risk prediction
- Section 2 Pharmacotherapeutics
- Section 3 Resuscitation
- Section 4 The respiratory system
- Section 5 The cardiovascular system
- Section 6 The gastrointestinal system
- Section 7 Nutrition
- Section 8 The renal system
- Section 9 The neurological system
- Section 10 The metabolic and endocrine systems
- Section 11 The haematological system
- Section 12 The skin and connective tissue
- Section 13 Infection
- Section 14 Inflammation
- Section 15 Poisoning
- Section 16 Trauma
- Section 17 Physical disorders
- Section 18 Pain and sedation
- Section 19 General surgical and obstetric intensive care
- Section 20 Specialized intensive care
- Section 21 Recovery from critical illness
- Section 22 End-of-life care
(p. 75) Policies, bundles, and protocols in critical care
- Chapter:
- (p. 75) Policies, bundles, and protocols in critical care
- Author(s):
Jeffrey Mazer
and Mitchell M. Levy
- DOI:
- 10.1093/med/9780199600830.003.0017
Recently, the medicine community has been driven to think about patient safety in new ways, and with this new found interest in patient safety, large health care systems and individual institutions have been forced to develop mechanisms to track and measure performance. There is ample evidence that physicians and systems can do better. The tools of this new craft include checklists, protocols, guidelines, and bundles. These tools help to decrease variability in care and enhance the translation of evidence-based medicine to bedside care. Ongoing measurement of both performance and clinical outcomes is central to this movement. This allows for rapid detection of both successes and possible unintended consequences associated with the rapid translation of evidence into practice. As hospitals and intensive care units (ICU) worldwide have embraced the field of quality improvement (QI), many lessons have been learned about the process. QI includes four essential phases—development, implementation, evaluation, and maintenance. Essential to the QI process and each of these QI phases is that the project must be tailored to each individual ICU and/or Institution. A one-size-fits-all project is less efficient, less effective, and at times unnecessary compare with a locally-driven process.
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- Section 1 ICU organization and management
- Part 1.1 The intensive care unit
- Part 1.2 Communication
- Part 1.3 Training
- Part 1.4 Safety and quality
- Chapter 16 Patient safety in the ICU
- Chapter 17 Policies, bundles, and protocols in critical care
- Chapter 18 Managing biohazards and environmental safety
- Chapter 19 Managing ICU staff welfare, morale, and burnout
- Part 1.5 Governance
- Part 1.6 Research
- Part 1.7 Medico-legal and ethical issues
- Part 1.8 Critical illness risk prediction
- Section 2 Pharmacotherapeutics
- Section 3 Resuscitation
- Section 4 The respiratory system
- Section 5 The cardiovascular system
- Section 6 The gastrointestinal system
- Section 7 Nutrition
- Section 8 The renal system
- Section 9 The neurological system
- Section 10 The metabolic and endocrine systems
- Section 11 The haematological system
- Section 12 The skin and connective tissue
- Section 13 Infection
- Section 14 Inflammation
- Section 15 Poisoning
- Section 16 Trauma
- Section 17 Physical disorders
- Section 18 Pain and sedation
- Section 19 General surgical and obstetric intensive care
- Section 20 Specialized intensive care
- Section 21 Recovery from critical illness
- Section 22 End-of-life care