Changing the Care Paradigm for Patients: Advanced Illness Beds Care Model

Over 90 million Americans suffer from advanced illness (AI) and spend their last days of life in critical care units receiving costly, unwanted, aggressive medical care.

Evaluate the impact of a specialized care model in medical/surgical units for hospitalized geriatric patients and patients with complex care requirements where designated AI beds align care with patient's wishes/goals, minimize aggressive interventions, and influence efficient resource utilization.

US based multi-facility retrospective, longitudinal descriptive study of screened positive AI patients in AI Beds (N = 1,237) from 3 facilities from 2015 to 2017.

Patient outcomes included 60% referrals to AI beds from ICU, a decrease of 39-49% in average ICU LOS, a 23% reduction of AI bed patient expirations, 9.0% referrals to hospice, and projected cost savings of $4,361.66/patient, US dollars.

Allocating AI beds to deliver care to AI patients resulted in a decreased cost of care by reducing overall hospital LOS, mortality, and efficient use of both critical care and hospital resources.