After critical illness: Home is where the heart is?

As the short- and long-term impacts on the health and wellbeing of ICU survivors have become more apparent, the need to study survivorship after an episode of critical illness has grown. ICU survivors face significant physical, cognitive, and mental health impairments in the months and years after ICU discharge, require high rates of post-acute care services, and are at increased risk for rehospitalization. Days alive and outside of an institution (DAOI) in the months after hospitalization has been used increasingly as an outcome measure in other specialties with lower mortality rates. As ICU mortality rates have declined, the focus of critical care outcomes research has begun to shift toward quality of life, and interest in DAOI has become an area of focus.

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute ( NHLBI)