The Effect of Multidisciplinary Care Teams on Intensive Care Unit Mortality

Abstract

More than 4 million intensive care unit (ICU) admissions occur annually in the United States.¹ These patients are often at high risk of death: mortality for critical illness syndromes such as acute lung injury and sepsis ranges from 25% to 50%, and 20% of Americans die while receiving intensive care services.^2-5 One approach to lowering ICU mortality is to optimize the organization of ICU services.⁶ For example, a large body of literature indicates that the presence of trained intensivist physicians is associated with improved survival,⁷ leading many policy makers to call for expansion of the intensivist-led model of critical care.⁸ Unfortunately, there are not enough trained intensivists to meet either current or future demand, and only a minority of ICUs are currently staffed in this manner.^9,10