The BMJ Awards 2021: Critical care team of the year
BMJ 2021; 374 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1993 (Published 19 August 2021) Cite this as: BMJ 2021;374:n1993
- Jacqui Wise, freelance journalist
- London, UK
Post-Intensive Care Unit Presentation Screen tool: covid-19 and beyond
About half of the 156 000 patients who survive critical care every year experience post-intensive care syndrome: marked physical, psychological, and cognitive debility which can last for years. Rehabilitation was recognised as an urgent issue during the first wave of the covid-19 pandemic, and a multidisciplinary group of experts got together and designed, validated, and piloted nationally a Post-Intensive Care Unit Presentation Screen (PICUPS) tool in just 176 days.
The PICUPS tool can be used to screen both covid and non-covid patients for physical and psychological disabilities, speech and language problems, nutritional deficiencies, and occupational health needs. “Before this there was no one screening tool and each speciality would use their own,” explains Zudin Puthucheary, consultant in intensive care at Barts Health NHS Trust and clinical senior lecturer at Queen Mary University of London. “There was no joined up thinking or ability to look at a person holistically.”
Wales will now include the PICUPS tool in …
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