• Owen Samuels, Adam Webb, Steve Culler, Kathleen Martin, and Daniel Barrow.
• Department of Neurosurgery, Emory University School of Medicine, 1365 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. obsamue@emory.edu
• Neurocrit Care. 2011 Jun 1; 14 (3): 334-40.

BackgroundIntensivist staffing of intensive care units (ICUs) has been associated with a reduction in in-hospital mortality. These improvements in patient outcomes have been extended to neurointensivist staffing of neuroscience ICUs for patients with intracranial hemorrhage and traumatic brain injury.ObjectiveThe primary objective of this study is to determine if hospital outcomes (measured by discharge status) for patients admitted with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage changed after the introduction of a neurointensivist-led multidisciplinary neurocritical care team.MethodsThe authors retrospectively identified 703 patients admitted to the neuroscience ICU with a diagnosis of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage at a single academic tertiary care hospital between January 1, 1995 and December 31, 2002. It was compared with discharge outcomes for those patients treated prior to and following the development of a multidisciplinary neurocritical care team.ResultsPatients treated after the introduction of a neurocritical care team were significantly more likely to be discharged to home (25.2% vs. 36.5%) and less likely to be discharged to a rehab facility (25.2% vs. 36.5%). Patients treated after introduction of a neurocritical care team were also more likely to receive definitive aneurysm treatment (10.9% vs. 18%).ConclusionThe implementation of a neurointensivist-led neurocritical care team is associated with improved hospital discharge disposition for patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage.

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