Evidence-based practice and performance improvement have become familiar terms in developed health care settings over the past 2 decades. The major instigator for better quality health care was the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM’s) report in 2000, To Err is Human,1  proposing that medical errors are one of the leading causes of death in the United States. As a result, large organizations, both private and governmental, now encourage evidence-based care by setting specific quality and safety initiatives for health care providers to follow. Although cooperation is not always mandatory, failure to collect data and/or comply with these initiatives can result in loss in reimbursement.2  Outside these “mandated” initiatives, providers in individual hospitals and units—including the intensive care unit (ICU)—are also encouraged to identify measures important to their specific situations.

Improving care in the ICU should be a goal of every provider in the unit. Critically ill patients undergo...

You do not currently have access to this content.