If we’ve learned one thing about hospital care in recent years it’s this — being a patient can be more dangerous than whatever medical problems you already had! It’s one of those perplexing ironies, but the intensive care unit (ICU), in particular, can be destructive to one’s health and well-being. As many as 80% of patients who have survived a critical illness that required a stay in intensive care paid a price. While recovering from the immediate problem — such as a heart attack or pneumonia — many patients develop cognitive problems, for example, trouble with focus and concentration. They may also have difficulty performing simple, everyday tasks and experience a decreased quality of life, and once they’ve left the hospital, they may find themselves unable to return to work. In some cases, individuals continue to feel these ill effects up to one or two years later… and for an unlucky few, the impact is even longer term.

Memory and thinking difficulties after a stay in the ICU can make it seem as if your brain is stuck in molasses, observes E. Wesley Ely, MD, MPH, an expert in critical care at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Now he and his colleagues have designed a five-step protocol to improve care and outcomes for ICU patients.

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