Are post-intensive care unit consultations actually harmful?

Excerpt

We have read the recent article written by Sharhar et al. [1] in which they concluded that a hospital-based, face-to-face, intensivist-led multidisciplinary consultation at intensive care unit (ICU) discharge, then at 3 and 6 months was associated with poor outcome 1 year after ICU. We congratulate the authors on the publication of this clinical trial to address this topic. However, we believe that some issues should be discussed. So far, the benefits of post-ICU follow-up clinics are to be proved. Benefits that could be considered “qualitative” for patients, families, physicians, the organization, primary care physician, public health and research have been argued [2], but there is no objective data on their economic or health-related quality of life benefits compared to conventional strategies [3]. However, what makes it difficult to accept from the study by Sharshar et al. [1] is that post-ICU care by a multidisciplinary team is associated with worse outcomes than the lack of this type of attention. …