About the Initiative

The Provincial Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Delirium Initiative was developed by Alberta Health Services Critical Care Strategic Clinical Network. The goal of the initiative is to foster excellence in the care of critically ill patients throughout Alberta. It does this primarily by establishing provincial standards and guidelines for the management and prevention of delirium within intensive care. There's no question that the advanced care provided in ICUs saves lives. For some patients, however, one consequence of this life-saving treatment can be delirium.

22 Alberta adult and pediatric intensive care units are participating in this initiative, the goals of which are to:

• Decrease incidence and duration of ICU delirium.
• Reduce ICU length of stay and hospital length of stay.
• Improve quality of ICU delirium care across the province with evidence-informed best practices.
• Collaborate & learn together as a critical care community, and contribute to a larger body of knowledge.
• Provide access to ICU delirium resources for patients, families and healthcare providers.

Our Goals

To improve delirium care in all of Alberta's adult & pediatric ICUs by:

• Developing provincial standards and clinical practice expectations for pain, agitation & delirium care in ICU.
• Implementing evidence-informed best practices for assessment, prevention and management of pain, agitation & ICU delirium.
• Developing an operational and quality dashboard on ICU delirium to facilitate continued quality improvement.

Benefits to Patients, Family Members & Health Professionals

Benefits include (but not limited to):

• Decreased incidence and duration of ICU delirium.
• Improvement in the quality of ICU delirium care across the province with evidence-informed best practices.
• Improvement in outcomes, patient and family experiences, and family satisfaction with the quality of the care we provide.
• Opportunities to collaborate & learn together as a critical care community, and contribute to a larger body of knowledge.
• Access to ICU delirium information.
• Reduction in ICU length of stay and hospital length of stay.

Tools & Resources

Intensive Care Delirium