[Evaluation of respiratory intensive care units at pneumology services]

Audits should be conducted in respiratory intensive care units (ICU) as in all other ICU using patient-specific indicators to assess medical activity and quality of care. However, other criteria, such as those developed by the SRLF ("Société de Réanimation de Langue Française"), should also be used. These criteria include the description of the patients previous health status, prognosis of underlying diseases, the SAPS I or SAPS II severity score at admission, the omega or TISS therapeutic scores, and the PRN index of health care burden. Medial and administrative audits are conducted using diagnosis-related groups (DRG) and case mix classification. The DRGs are used to establish an aggregate index of activity (ISA points) which contribute to the complex mechanism of budget allowance. Unfortunately, the French DRG case mix system does not provide an appropriate description of the costs of ICU stays. One of the special features of respiratory ICUs is related to patient flow. Patients are referred from a respiratory unit and discharged to a respiratory unit or a respiratory rehabilitation center. Readmissions are frequent. Many patients are also admitted only for diagnosis or a respiratory procedure requiring close surveillance. The SRLF criteria, which take into consideration all of these features, should always be used for the evaluation of quality of care. The French Society of Lung Disease (SPLF) has proposed specific standards of quality for respiratory ICU. We present here examples issuing for the ICU of the Hôtel-Dieu Hospital in Paris. The results show that non-specific national indicators, in combination with other indicators specific for respiratory ICU, provide appropriate audit data.