A qualitative exploration of escalation of care in the acute ward setting (December 2019)

Summary

The aim of this qualitative service evaluation, published by Nursing in Critical Care, was to map the barriers and facilitators to the escalation of care in the acute ward setting and identify those that are modifiable.

This service evaluation identified barriers and facilitators to the escalation of care in the acute ward setting. Unlike other studies, we found that re‐escalation or tracking of deterioration was problematic. Patients identified as being at a higher risk of escalation failure included complex patients, outliers, and patients with multiple care teams.