Key result
Retrospective case review without preselection is proposed as a feasible method for evaluating preventable mortality in the ICU to identify opportunities for quality improvement.
This viewpoint explores the opportunities and difficulties of implementing a tool to evaluate preventable mortality in the ICU, suggesting retrospective case review as a feasible method for quality improvement.
May inform ICU QI via unselected mortality review; leaves open prospective validation of impact.
Mortality is the most widely measured outcome parameter. Improvement of this outcome parameter in critical care is nowadays expected not to come from new technologies or treatment, but from delivering the right care at the right moment in a safe way. The measurement of mortality as an outcome parameter confronts us with a problem in providing follow-up to the results. Especially when proven structure and process interventions are applied already, the cause of a suboptimal performance cannot be deduced easily. One possibility is to evaluate the causes of death and to judge preventability. In this article we explore the opportunities and difficulties of a tool to evaluate preventable mortality in the ICU.
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Dijkema et al. (2012) conducted a review in Critical illness. Preventable mortality evaluation was evaluated. Retrospective case review without preselection is proposed as a feasible method for evaluating preventable mortality in the ICU to identify opportunities for quality improvement.
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