The global need for essential emergency and critical care

Carl Otto Schell, Martin Gerdin Wärnberg, Anna Hvarfner, Andreas Höög, Ulrika Baker, Markus Castegren, Tim Baker, Carl Otto Schell, Martin Gerdin Wärnberg, Anna Hvarfner, Andreas Höög, Ulrika Baker, Markus Castegren, Tim Baker

Abstract

Critical illness results in millions of deaths each year. Care for those with critical illness is often neglected due to a lack of prioritisation, co-ordination, and coverage of timely identification and basic life-saving treatments. To improve care, we propose a new focus on essential emergency and critical care (EECC)-care that all critically ill patients should receive in all hospitals in the world. Essential emergency and critical care should be part of universal health coverage, is appropriate for all countries in the world, and is intended for patients irrespective of age, gender, underlying diagnosis, medical specialty, or location in the hospital. Essential emergency and critical care is pragmatic and low-cost and has the potential to improve care and substantially reduce preventable mortality.

Keywords: Critical care; Critical illness; Developing countries; Emergency care; Global health; Health services; Patient safety; Quality of care; Universal health coverage.

Conflict of interest statement

Authors’ information

The authors are an experienced group of researchers and clinicians working in Malawi and Sweden.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Critical illness: a horizontal illness-severity perspective
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Relationship between EECC, advanced emergency and critical care, and location in hospitals
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Essential emergency and critical care (EECC) in hospitals: a conceptual framework. The numbers in circles correspond to the text in Table 1

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Source: PubMed

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