Essential Emergency and Critical Care: a consensus among global clinical experts.
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Authors
Khalid, Karima
Oliwa, Jacquie
Sanga, Alex
Rylance, Jamie
Kayambankadzanja, Raphael K
EECC Collaborators
EECC Collaborators*
Publication Date
2021-09Journal Title
BMJ Glob Health
ISSN
2059-7908
Publisher
BMJ
Volume
6
Issue
9
Language
eng
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Physical Medium
Print
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Schell, C. O., Khalid, K., Wharton-Smith, A., Oliwa, J., Sawe, H. R., Roy, N., Sanga, A., et al. (2021). Essential Emergency and Critical Care: a consensus among global clinical experts.. BMJ Glob Health, 6 (9) https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006585
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Globally, critical illness results in millions of deaths every year. Although many of these deaths are potentially preventable, the basic, life-saving care of critically ill patients are often overlooked in health systems. Essential Emergency and Critical Care (EECC) has been devised as the care that should be provided to all critically ill patients in all hospitals in the world. EECC includes the effective care of low cost and low complexity for the identification and treatment of critically ill patients across all medical specialties. This study aimed to specify the content of EECC and additionally, given the surge of critical illness in the ongoing pandemic, the essential diagnosis-specific care for critically ill patients with COVID-19. METHODS: In a Delphi process, consensus (>90% agreement) was sought from a diverse panel of global clinical experts. The panel iteratively rated proposed treatments and actions based on previous guidelines and the WHO/ICRC's Basic Emergency Care. The output from the Delphi was adapted iteratively with specialist reviewers into a coherent and feasible package of clinical processes plus a list of hospital readiness requirements. RESULTS: The 269 experts in the Delphi panel had clinical experience in different acute medical specialties from 59 countries and from all resource settings. The agreed EECC package contains 40 clinical processes and 67 requirements, plus additions specific for COVID-19. CONCLUSION: The study has specified the content of care that should be provided to all critically ill patients. Implementing EECC could be an effective strategy for policy makers to reduce preventable deaths worldwide.
Keywords
EECC Collaborators, EECC Collaborators*, Humans, Critical Care, Consensus, Emergency Medical Services, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2
Sponsorship
Department of Health (via National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)) (16/137/105)
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006585
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/329645
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