One stop shop: New clinic bundles key services after ICU discharge
Rooted in research, a Michigan Medicine clinic aims to help intensive care unit patients receive proper follow-up care and prevent readmissions.
After close observation and treatment in an intensive care unit, patients who have fought through their critical illness are sent home to continue recovery.
But then what?
For many patients, they may not be prepared for the recovery process following an ICU admission.
“It’s interesting, because we all celebrate when a patient survives a severe critical illness and is able to go home, but really that’s only half of the battle,” says Jakob McSparron, M.D., assistant professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Michigan Medicine. “The next step is thinking about follow-up care and how to help them recover effectively and keep them from being hospitalized again.”
And it’s why a new clinic at Michigan Medicine was established to aid in that recovery process.
The University of Michigan Post ICU Longitudinal Survivor Experience Clinic (U-M PULSE) is one of just a few such clinics in the country. Set up to provide multidisciplinary care, it allows patients to be seen by a pharmacist, social worker and physician in the same visit.