Abstract
Taking upstairs care outside.
Highlights
Critical care is a clinically complex and resource intensive discipline, the world over
The regionalization of critical care resources and the creation of referral networks has been one approach that has led to success in this area.[2,3,4,5,6,7]
An increase in the number of patients requiring the continuation of critical care in-transit has led to a need to expand the borders of traditional intensive care beyond the confines of the hospital
Summary
Critical care is a clinically complex and resource intensive discipline, the world over. The delivery of these services has been compounded by the need to sustain a specialized workforce, while maintaining consistent and high standards.[1,2] The regionalization of critical care resources and the creation of referral networks has been one approach that has led to success in this area.[2,3,4,5,6,7] as steps have been made towards regionalization, so too has the need to transfer patients between facilities in order to access these services The effects of this are already apparent, where estimates in the United States have found that 1 in 20 patients requiring intensive and critical care resulted in transfer to another facility.[2] The need for such transfers are varied as they are common and include: no critical care facilities at the referring facility; no staffed critical care bed availability at referring facility; requirements for expertise and/or specialists facilitates not available at referring site; and the repatriation of patients back to their original facility.[6,8] An increase in the number of patients requiring the continuation of critical care in-transit has led to a need to expand the borders of traditional intensive care beyond the confines of the hospital. It further highlights the importance of the relationship and cooperation between the HMCAS and CCN regarding the expertise and resources that each component adds to the overall service
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