Data on the structure and organisation of intensive
care units (ICU) worldwide are scarce, especially in intermediate- and
low-income countries. This lack of information is partly due to the high
disparity in clinical care provided to critically ill people worldwide, to the
diversity of the health systems models, and to the difficulty in reaching a consensus
on the definition of what an ICU is. The recent report of the World Federation
of Societies of Intensive Care Medicine proposes a common framework for transnational
evaluation of the available healthcare resources (Marshall et al. 2017).
The present survey, the International survey of the structure and organisation
of ICUs (ISOREA)[Enquête Internationale
sur la Structure et l’Organisation des REAnimations], aims to evaluate the structures and organisation systems
of ICUs in a big sample from high-, middle-, and low-income countries. Its
exhaustive design should provide meaningful data in the field.
The following items will be involved in our survey:
- the spatial characteristics of the ICUlife support and monitoring techniques
- human resources
- clinical care administered to patients
- research activities, and
- training and quality improvement programmes.
Data will be collected over the first semester of 2018
and analysed during the second semester of 2018. This should help define the
ICUs’ capacities, draft their classification, and compare them across countries
of similar of different income. Our study may provide important insights to
decision makers on the actions to undertake and the improvement projects to set
up, especially in low- or middle-income countries.
Link to the survey
https://www.wepi.org/accounts/59efbfb6b142d/enquetes//1583567680/scripts/connect.php?t=1223669459&s=f
This survey is endorsed by the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM), the Société de Réanimation de Langue Française (SRLF) and the Société d’Anesthésie Réanimation d’Afrique Noire Francophone (SARANF).
