Developing key performance indicators for adult critical care transfer services: Scoping review and Delphi technique

Nick Haslam; Aurelien Giouse; Jonathon Dean; Mamoun Abu-Habsa; Simon J Finney

doi:10.1177/17511437231153049

Developing key performance indicators for adult critical care transfer services: Scoping review and Delphi technique

J Intensive Care Soc. 2023 Nov;24(4):438-441. doi: 10.1177/17511437231153049. Epub 2023 Feb 12.

Authors

Nick Haslam¹, Aurelien Giouse², Jonathon Dean³, Mamoun Abu-Habsa³, Simon J Finney¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Critical Care, Barts Heart Centre, Barts Health NHS Trust, London, UK.
² Department of Critical Care, The Royal London Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust, London, UK.
³ North East London Critical Care Transfer and Retrieval, The Royal London Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust, London, UK.

Abstract

In 2021 NHS England commissioned regional Adult Critical Care Transfer Services. These services will replace a historically predominant ad hoc approach to adult critical care transfers nationally. It is anticipated that these new formal services will provide a system of robust regional & national governance previously acknowledged to be deficient. As part of this process, it is important that an agreed set of transfer service quality indicators are developed to drive equitable improvement in patient care. We used a Delphi technique to develop a set of key performance indicators through consensus for a recently established London critical care transfer service. We believe this may be the first-time key performance indicators have been developed for adult critical care transfer services using a consensus method. We hope services will consider tracking similar measures to enable benchmarking and drive improvements in patient care.

Keywords: Adult critical care; continuous quality improvement; governance; performance measures.