Health care systems are facing the challenge of caring for complex patients described by the presence of co-occurring and multiple chronic diseases that is known as multimorbidity (1-4). Multimorbidity has a relevant impact on patients' outcomes in both younger and older adults and many of them are hospitalized in intensive care units (ICU) (1, 5-15).
Approximately 10% of these patients die in ICU and 15% are expected to die in hospitals, and the vast majority of patients survive to hospital discharge (16).
The understanding of short and long term physical and psychological morbidity associated with ICU survivorship, has led to an exploration and identification of both the precipitating factors and interventions which could reduce the incidence and severity of complications (14, 17-21). From one side, survivorship from the ICU has doubled from a mere 40% in 1990 up to 80% in 2010 (22-24), and from the other side, up to one third of the total mortality that occurs after a successful discharge (25). This high mortality rate after a successful discharge from the ICU emphasizes the critical need for additional attention to this complex decision-making process... (Read more...)
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