Understanding Acute Care Usage by Adult Chronically Critically Ill Ventilated Patients: A Chart Review

ObjectivesTo better understand the rationale for acute care usage among long term care ventilated residents.BackgroundChronically critically ill ventilated individuals experience complex health challenges, with many not surviving one year post initial hospitalization discharge. Recent research reports high acute care readmission rates for chronically critically ill patients, yet most studies have not examined the reasons patients are readmitted, nor the treatment and care provided during these stays.MethodA retrospective medical chart reviews of all emergency department visits and acute care admissions, occurring from August 2014 to August 2016, of chronically critically ill ventilated individuals living in a residential care facility in the province of British Columbia, Canada was conducted.ResultsThere were 49 emergency department visits and 56 acute care admissions over a 2 year period by 20 chronically critically ill ventilated residential care patients. The majority of acute care admissions were related to pneumonia, whereas the majority of emergency department visits were not specified.ConclusionChronically critically ill ventilated long term care residents are high users of acute care resources, frequently admitted for pneumonia.