Discharge practice | Description |
---|---|
Discharge criteria | the usage of set criteria when making the decision to discharge a patient from the ICU |
Bed manager | nurse or physician managing bed availability in ICU and step-down facilities |
Early discharge planninga | starting with planning a discharge at least 24Â h before the transfer of the patient to the ward |
Step-down facilities | beds with less monitoring and a lower nurse-patient ratio than ICU beds, but more monitoring and a higher nurse-patient ratio then ward beds. |
Medication reconciliationa | creating an actual medication overview of current medications, (temporarily stopped) home medication, and information about allergies. Home medication and allergy information is checked with the patient or relatives. |
Verbal and written handoverb | oral and written information transfer by nurses, and oral and written information transfer by physicians |
Monitoring of post-ICU patients | patients discharged from the ICU are visited on the ward and evaluated by ICU personnel |
Consulting ICU nurses | an ICU nurse is 24/7 available for questions and assistance on the ward |