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Matching Illness Severity with Level of Care

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Abstract

Matching the level of care to the severity of a patient’s illness seems fundamental to the provision of quality health care. However, until recently, admission to hospital has generally been an unsystematic process, with sick patients being admitted directly from home, an outpatient clinic, or the emergency department (ED) to general wards wherein the level of monitoring and clinical supervision varied considerably. Only a few, very sick, patients are admitted directly from the ED to a high dependency unit (HDU) or an intensive care unit (ICU) for higher levels of monitoring or care. In times of high HDU/ICU occupancy, even sick patients are triaged to lower care areas.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cirtical care, Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth, PO6 3LY, UK

    Gary B. Smith

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  1. Gary B. Smith
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  2. Juliane Kause
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Correspondence to Gary B. Smith .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Department of Critical Care Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Dewey Street 125, Edgewood, 15218-1407, Pennsylvania, USA

    Michael A. DeVita

  2. Liverpool Hospital, Dept. Intensive Care, University of New South Wales, Locked Bag 7103, Liverpool, 1871, New South Wales, Australia

    Ken Hillman

  3. Dept. Intensive Care, Austin and Repatriation Medical Centre, Studley Road, Heidelberg, 3084, Victoria, Australia

    Rinaldo Bellomo

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Smith, G.B., Kause, J. (2011). Matching Illness Severity with Level of Care. In: DeVita, M., Hillman, K., Bellomo, R. (eds) Textbook of Rapid Response Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-92853-1_12

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