Earlier in the year, the onset of the H1N1 virus became one of the world's most talked about public health risks. Concern over this virus has spotlighted discussion regarding how prepared our nation is to deal with a pandemic outbreak or even the risk of bioterrorism. This focus has made it urgent that we take an aggressive look at our nation's current critical care system, our priorities, and what policies are needed to align the two.

The ramifications for critical care - impacting providers, payors, patients and health care businesses - could be vast. Policy changes in the area of health care have the potential to apply a one-size-fits-all approach to the increasingly diverse and dynamic health care delivery system.

Prior to the establishment of the Roundtable, there had been, to date, no single national conversation with leaders in government, academia and industry aimed at formulating a policy paradigm designed to optimize critical care delivery.

Laying a Policy Foundation: The Roundtable on Critical Care Policy

A broad array of stakeholders in the critical care delivery system have come together, seeing there is much to gain from fostering a thoughtful, focused discussion on critical care in the context of pandemic preparedness and health care reform. These stakeholders have become concerned about the many unintended consequences that could impair the critical care system, as well as missed opportunities to improve the policy environment to elicit optimal, best-quality, patient-focused critical care across the nation. With a potential surge in critical care utilization, many topics in critical care have become even more pressing including end-of-life care, workforce adequacy, and the lack of a critical care research network. Concern about the critical care community's ability to adequately respond to these issues is reflected in the Roundtable's consensus recommendations for federal policy action.

Items of Consensus

From the October 2009 Roundtable event, delegates concluded that several policy options could help the critical care field. These consensus items were compiled and shared with Roundtable participants and interested Members of Congress. These recommendations can be viewed and downloaded here.