American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine
-
Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Aug 2024
Shift-Level Team Familiarity Is Associated with Improved Outcomes in Mechanically Ventilated Adults.
Rationale: Organizing ICU interprofessional teams is a high priority because of workforce needs, but the role of interprofessional familiarity remains unexplored. Objectives: Determine if mechanically ventilated patients cared for by teams with greater familiarity have improved outcomes, such as lower mortality, shorter duration of mechanical ventilation (MV), and greater spontaneous breathing trial (SBT) implementation. Methods: We used electronic health records data of five ICUs in an academic medical center to map interprofessional teams and their ICU networks, measuring team familiarity as network coreness and mean team value. ⋯ A 1-SD increase in team coreness was significantly associated with a 4.5% greater probability of SBT implementation, 23% shorter MV duration, and 3.8% lower probability of dying; the mean team value was significantly associated with lower mortality. Split-sample results were attenuated but congruent in direction and interpretation. Conclusions: Interprofessional familiarity was associated with improved outcomes; assignment models that prioritize familiarity might be a novel solution.