SEATTLE, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- The American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) announced today the formation of the new ACCP Critical Care Institute (ACCP-CCI) as a center of excellence within the ACCP, housing programs and initiatives related to critical care medicine. With the help of its founding partner, the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) and other strategic partnerships, the ACCP-CCI will utilize a multidisciplinary team of experts and resources to address and anticipate challenges in critical care medicine for both health-care professionals and patients. The announcement was made during CHEST 2004, the 70th annual international scientific assembly of the ACCP, held October 23-28 in Seattle, WA.
“The ACCP has been at the forefront of critical care medicine for many years,” said ACCP-CCI Chair Curtis N. Sessler, MD, FCCP. “The development of the ACCP-CCI not only illustrates the College’s important role as a leader in critical care medicine, but also reinforces our commitment to practicing collaborative patient-focused care.”
With the largest membership of critical care physicians in the world, the ACCP is cognizant of the difficult issues facing critical care medicine, including the critical care workforce shortage, medical errors and patient safety, and rising costs. Through the ACCP-CCI, the ACCP will address critical care issues internally by building on existing critical care educational programs and products, such as The CHEST Foundation Critical Care Family Assistance Program, the ACCP Critical Care Board Review Course and Syllabus, and the ACCP Special Program for Critical Care Fellows, as well as developing new critical care programs and products. Through strategic partnerships, the ACCP-CCI will provide leadership in promoting collaborative interprofessional patient-focused care in order to influence the culture of critical care medicine in the United States.
“Health-care organizations and government institutions have emphasized the urgency of the critical care workforce shortage and corresponding patient safety issues. These issues will affect professionals in nearly every health- care specialty, making it essential for an interdisciplinary model of collaboration in addressing these imminent concerns,” said Richard S. Irwin, MD, FCCP, Immediate Past-President of the American College of Chest Physicians. “Through the combined talents of ACCP and AACN members, and other health-care organizations, the ACCP-CCI will develop and support educational and advocacy initiatives that focus on the specific challenges facing critical care professionals and patients and American medicine as a whole.”
In an initial meeting of the ACCP-CCI, members of the ACCP and AACN gathered with representatives from the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM), the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), the National Association for Medical Direction of Respiratory Care (NAMDRC), and the Illinois Society of Respiratory Care (ISRC), to discuss the future direction of critical care medicine. As a result, the ACCP-CCI, together with the AACN and the SHM, will lead the development of a nationwide Critical Care Collaborative of societies who share the belief that the care of the critically ill should be patient- focused and collaborative and that the care critically ill patients should receive must go beyond the intensive care unit. The collaborative, utilizing experts from disciplines in and outside of medicine, will form a task force to focus on developing a critical care summit. The summit will identify best practices in critical care medicine in order to develop and refine multi- professional models of patient care.
“Now more than ever, acutely ill patients need their hospital care managed by a collaborative and specialized team of critical care physicians, hospitalists, nurses, pharmacists, and appropriate therapists if we are serious about improving quality and driving better outcomes,” said Jeanne Huddleston, MD, FACP, President of the Society of Hospital Medicine. “Combining the expertise of this team with the advances of medical science will lead to a patient-centered approach that can positively transform the hospital of the future.”
CHEST 2004 is the 70th annual international scientific assembly of the American College of Chest Physicians, held October 23-28 in Seattle, WA. ACCP represents 16,000 members who provide clinical respiratory, critical care, sleep, and cardiothoracic patient care in the United States and throughout the world. The ACCP’s mission is to promote the prevention and treatment of diseases of the chest through leadership, education, research, and communication. For more information about the ACCP, please visit the ACCP Web site at http://www.chestnet.org/ .
American College of Chest Physicians
CONTACT: Jennifer Stawarz, +1-847-498-8306, jstawarz@chestnet.org , orDanette Rapp, +1-202-955-6222, drapp@spectrumscience.com , both for ACCP
Web site: http://www.chestnet.org/