LTACs

Q: Patients transferred from ICU to long-term acute care (LTAC) facilities may require to keep a length of stay (LOS) for at least how many days?

Answer: ≥25 days

ICU physicians on daily basis need to make decisions about the appropriateness of patient transfer to different facilities besides regular wards or step-down units. A large portion of these patients go to LTAC facilities, particularly those patients who are still dependent on ventilators or had multi-system organ failure (MSOF). Three major criteria usually required are

• must maintain an average length of stay ≥25 days
• must require daily monitoring 
• must require complex medical interventions

#discharge-planning

Reference:

Kahn JM, Benson NM, Appleby D, et al. Long-term acute care hospital utilization after critical illness. JAMA 2010; 303:2253.