Early decannulation, repatriation, and hospital discharges by introducing a tracheostomy care task force for noncritical care tracheostomized patients

Abstract EN

Objective.

To determine the impact of an intensivist lead tracheostomy care team on the number of successful decannulations in non-critically ill patients and the time required for such decannulations and discharge from the hospital.

Methods.

Following the introduction of a multidisciplinary tracheostomy care task force, data was collected prospectively from July to December 2009.

Matching control data was collected retrospectively from January to June 2009.

Chi-Square and Mann-Whitney Utest were used to compare the differences in study variables with an α of 0.05.

Results.

A total of 44 and 47 patients with percutaneous tracheostomy (PCT) were discharged from the ICU pre- and post-implementation of the task force, respectively.

Nine patients in pre- and 24 in postimplementation phase were decannulated, discharged from the hospital, and repatriated to their country of origin (Chi Sq.

= 9.21, P = .002).

Patients in pre-implementation group had longer hospital stay post ICU discharge compared to patients in post-implementation (58 vs.

34.1 days) group (P <.001).

Conclusion.

Structured multidisciplinary tracheostomy care team was associated with significant increase in number of decannulations, hospital discharges, and repatriation post ICU discharge.