What is the incidence and preventability of adverse events requiring ICU admission?
Adverse events frequently cause preventable ICU admissions, but high study heterogeneity prevents precise estimation of incidence rates.
Adverse events are an important reason for (re)admission to the ICU and a considerable proportion of these are preventable. It was not possible to estimate an overall incidence and preventability rate of these events as we found considerable heterogeneity. To decrease adverse events that necessitate ICU admission, several systems are recommended such as early detection of patients with clinical instability on general wards and the implementation of rapid response teams. Step-down or intermediate care units could be a useful strategy for patients who require monitoring to avoid ICU readmissions. However, the effectiveness of such systems needs to be investigated.
Vlayen et al. (2011) studied this question.