Intensive care is an essential part of any health system. Developing a strategy to improve the efficacy of critical health care services requires a precise knowledge of the structural and organisational capacities of such units.


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).


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References:

Marshall J et al. (2017) What Is an intensive care unit? J Crit Care 37: 270–6. doi:10.1016/j.jcrc.2016.07.015.


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Intensive care is an essential part of any health system. Developing a strategy to improve the efficacy of critical health care services requires a precise...