Critical Care Initiatives
Critical Care Initiatives aim to improve patient care and experience, facilitate workflow, standardize practice among all National Guard Regions, monitor processes and outcomes, create multidisciplinary teams, and automate documentation.
Those initiatives are as the following:
This program aims to support the patient's family in the intensive care units and improve their experience to provide the highest level of patient and family-centered care.
It is a multidisciplinary cooperation between the patient experience department, social service, Nursing, Respiratory therapist, and ICU Physicians to conduct a weekly meeting with the patients' families and discuss their experience. Families are also engaged in the ICU round with the treating team to explain the treatment plan and answer all their questions.
The I-protect project uses a wireless monitor to connect the patients in the ward to the I-protect command center 24/7 to capture the clinical deterioration early.
The Early mobility project aims to maintain baseline mobility and functional capacity, decrease the incidence of delirium, and decrease ventilator days and hospital length of stay.
A multidisciplinary team performs the project, including the treating physician, ICU nurse, and physiotherapist or occupational therapist.
The ICU Handover Project aims to improve the process of the ICU patient handover by creating a handover system in the electronic medical records (BESTCare) which can be filled up by the team and prioritize the patient issues.
The Daily Goals Project aims to create a system-based checklist to be filled by the ICU nurse and ICU physician with documentation in the electronic medical records system (BestCare). The purpose is to ensure that the essential checklist of the patient plan of care has been completed.
- Simulation and patient safety
ICU simulation project is designed mainly to allow the acquisition of clinical skills through deliberate practice rather than an apprentice learning style. Simulation provides a safe simulation environment for the training using advanced technology and high-fidelity manikins.
A monthly schedule is arranged with different learning topics for ICU multidisciplinary team members (residents, fellows, nurses, & respiratory therapists), such as safety patient scenarios and skill training sessions, for example, Central line insertion, intubation, and clinical scenarios.
- Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) project in the ICU
This ICU project aims to improve the clinical situation of ECMO "Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation" patients by training more staff on dealing with ECMO patients and troubleshooting in the simulation lab.
- National Approach to Standardize and Improve Mechanical Ventilation (NASAM) Project
To optimize the care of patients on mechanical ventilators.
Its main elements: Appropriate management of sedation, Timely weaning/discontinuation of mechanical ventilation, Timely and appropriate level of physiotherapy.
- Critical care point of care ultrasound project
This project aims to improve the patient's diagnostic accuracy, minimize the time to diagnosis and time to definitive management, enhance procedural safety, and decrease ICU Morbidity by designing a critical care ultrasound competency. A primary focus is to train more ICU residents & fellows and ensure their privileging on how to use it.
- Virtual family visit and patient experience (Zyarati)
An ICU-led project aims to offer a safe and convenient approach to virtually communicating with patients and their families, mainly when hospital visits were restricted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
They were implemented in the different regions over the Ministry of the National Guard Health Affairs. Over 10,000 video calls were made between the ICU patients and their families in 2021, with a family satisfaction rate of 85%.
- Stepped-wedge cluster randomized controlled trial of early electronic notification of sepsis in hospitalized ward patients (SCREEN) project
The main goal of this critical care initiative is to improve the care of the ward's patients with sepsis through early detection using electronic alert systems.
This system was implemented end of 2019 to include 45 wards in five National Guard hospitals, which led to the acceleration of medical and nursing care provided to patients.