[Model of a prospective follow-up study of patients managed in intensive care]

For ethical and economic reasons, follow-up--especially after intensive care--is important as a form of quality control which could serve as a basis for more differentiated indications for patient admission. A follow-up model, involving questionnaires 3 months, 1 year and 3 years after intensive care, and preliminary results of patients in 1985 are presented. Only a few patients described their present health situation as bad, but unstable situations showed little improvement between 3 months and 1 year after intensive care. There was a rather high percentage of rehospitalization and/or need for continued medical care. Only 10% of respondent patients were unable to work 1 year after intensive care, and 12% still depended on help from others. 15-35% described their quality of life as restricted; only 4% had negative memories of intensive care (fear, pain), and only 0.6% of respondent patients thought their previous admission to the intensive care unit had been a wrong decision.