Multidisciplinary achievement: the collaborative approach to rapid cycle ICU and hospital change.

Multidisciplinary teams are different from the traditional team format in that representation and participation from various disciplines characterize the structure. In April 1996, a multidisciplinary group from Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center's intensive care unit learned methodology at the Institute for Health Care Improvement (IHI) Breakthrough Series in Adult Intensive Care. With the format learned, improvements in diverse areas such as ventilator management, intermediate care, clinical laboratory utilization, and others were accomplished.

Use of flexible intermediate and intensive care to reduce multiple transfers of patients.

Objective: To test an alternative flexible approach to traditional fixed intermediate and intensive care to minimize transfers of patients.

Methods: Patients admitted to a 28-bed nursing unit with intermediate care potential and a 12-bed intensive care unit at a 300-bed teaching community hospital were studied. The group included 524 patients with a discharge diagnosis code for mechanical ventilation.