In anticipation of the need to create more intensive care unit (ICU) beds during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) updated its statistics on critical care resources and put forward a strategy for augmenting staff. SCCM recommends hospitals use a tiered staffing model to enable intensive care clinicians to supervise the care of patients needing mechanical ventilation. The tiered ICU staffing model assigns one experienced critical care physician to supervise four ICU teams of experienced advanced practice professionals and non-ICU physicians. For example, teams might include anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetists, who are skilled at managing mechanical ventilation. The model also assigns experienced ICU nurses to supervise teams of non-ICU nurses or non-ICU advanced practice professionals. Training non-ICU staff who are reassigned to ICU duty is critical to the model’s success. (HealthLeaders Media story, 3/23/20)
