NICE: “Give Critically Ill Patients Rehab Goals Within Four Days”

NICE: “Give Critically Ill Patients Rehab Goals Within Four Days”

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), have published a new quality standard that declares patients in critical care, who are at risk of morbidity, should have their rehabilitation goals agreed upon within four days of admission.

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The standard set by NICE demonstrates different ways in which the care of adults, who are in critical care for longer than four days, can be improved. These people may also be at risk of a physical morbidity such as muscle loss, or a non-physical morbidity such as cognitive dysfunction.

Furthermore, the standard recommends that physiotherapists, and other healthcare professionals, should provide patients that fall in to this category with the following:

•          A structured and individualised rehab programme for when they transfer from critical care to a general ward
•          Information regarding what to expect after discharge. This should be based on the rehab goals that have been agreed upon during their time in hospital
•         Finally, a review of the individual, two or three months after discharge, should be made. This review will include a functional reassessment of their health and social care needs

Consultant physiotherapist, David McWilliams, works in critical care at the University of Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust.  He explains: “…this quality standard offers measurable standards to support this structure and will be of great benefit to both physiotherapists and patients”.

Rachael Moses, a physio consultant at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, believes that on a local level, commissioning services like this have often proved difficult. However, the NICE quality standards could help health professionals identify a need, risk assess, demonstrate the necessity for a relevant service and benchmark their services.

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