Rehabilitation following critical illness

This study has been commissioned by Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership
as part of the Clinical Outcome Review Programme into Medical & Surgical care.
For information on how we use data click here

Data collection for study:          CLOSED
Patient identification spreadsheet:    CLOSED
Clinical data collection:           CLOSED
Case note requests:             CLOSED
Organisational data collection:      CLOSED
Publication date:               Spring 2025  

Aim:
To evaluate the rehabilitation provided to critically ill adults within intensive care units, as well as throughout the recovery pathway to encompass both ward based and community care.

Participating hospitals:

Data will be collected from hospitals in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, in which patients can be admitted to intensive (level 3) care and hospitals where rehabilitation care is provided to inpatients as well as from primary care and community providers.

Data collection:
Patient identification - The patient identification spreadsheet will be sent out in two stages:

• ICU Rehabilitation patient identifier spreadsheet A:

This will ask for a limited amount of data to identify all patients who fit the study criteria. This will include the NHS/Hospital number, DOB, sex, and ICU admission/discharge details.

• ICU Rehabilitation patient identifier spreadsheet B:



This will ask for more detailed information on up to 8 patients per hospital identified from spreadsheet A. This will include the details of all the community-based rehabilitation care arranged for these patients and the details of the clinical teams providing care.



Study contact:
We will ask that the named rehabilitation lead/ coordinator at each hospital act as a ‘study contact’, to facilitate the process and to support the Local Reporter to collect the required data. Please contact icurehab@ncepod.org.uk with the name of the study contact.

In-hospital Clinician questionnaire
A questionnaire will be sent to the named consultant intensivist for each patient in the study. We will limit the number of questionnaires to 4 per consultant to minimise the burden on individual clinicians. Questionnaires can be completed by the named intensivist with input from the MDT. The questionnaires will be disseminated via the NCEPOD online questionnaire system.
Data collected will include information on the assessment of rehabilitation needs and access to rehabilitation throughout the inpatient hospital stay and following discharge from hospital at follow-up appointment(s) for up to 1-year post-discharge.


Case note extracts for review
Case notes will be requested for all patients included in the peer review aspect of the study.

Hospital organisational questionnaire
An organisational questionnaire will be disseminated to all participating hospitals that will collect data on the organisational structures, policies and staffing required to deliver a high-quality rehabilitation service. (Dissemination from August 2024)

GP and community clinical questionnaire
A short organisational questionnaire collecting data on inpatient rehabilitation and community-based rehabilitation services will be disseminated to community hospitals.
(Dissemination from August 2024)

GP clinical questionnaire
A short questionnaire will be disseminated to the patient’s GP to identify the provision for assessment of rehabilitation needs and delivery of rehabilitation in the community, including routine follow-up appointments for up to 1 year following discharge from hospital (following the ICU stay of 4 or more consecutive days).
This page will be updated regularly so please check for further .

Please see the “LR Process flow chart” link for a timeline for this study.
Any other queries relating to this study should be also addressed toicurehab@ncepod.org.uk.