A survey of intensive care unit discharge communication practices in the UK

Abstract

This survey into intensive care unit (ICU) discharge communication practices presents data from 60 responding units in the UK. Of these, 95% provide some form of written or verbal information to ward teams and 86.7% have Critical Care Outreach Teams, which provide the majority of post-discharge follow-up. Very little information is provided to patients, their relatives or GPs, with only 36.7% of units forwarding discharge letters to GPs, and 58.3% that do not formally provide discharge information to patients or relatives. These results highlight areas where the UK intensive care community can improve their communication about patients following discharge from ICU. © The Intensive Care Society 2013.