Critical care reaching out (further) to help?

Abstract

Critical care medicine has existed in the world in a recognisable form for about 70years,beginning with the first description of an “anaesthesiologic observation unit” developed for the 1952–1953 Copenhagen poliomyelitis epidemic. Within a very short time, other European and North American reports appeared describing upgraded recovery rooms treating patients with coma, shock or poisoning, and resuscitation emergencies. These new hospital services had elements of triage, rapid treatment and concentrated care, and were soon accommodating an ever larger count of patients with higher levels of acuity within a system formerly designed to care for stable patients.

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“…In this issue of CCR, the Austin Health Critical Care Outreach Physician Investigators 2 report the first findings on the new concept of the critical care outreach physician. As highlighted in the accompanying editorial, 3 this new function of the intensive care team is now developing in Victoria and may represent yet another major way in which the intensive care unit (ICU) provides pervasive preventive assessment, care, and rescue for deteriorating ward patients. It may be that a major aspect of the future of the specialty is not in the ICU but outside!…”