OBJECTIVES: To determine the effect of the critical care outreach team on patient survival to discharge from hospital after discharge from critical care and readmission to critical care. DESIGN: Non-randomised population based study. SETTING: Tertiary referral teaching hospital with 1200 beds. PARTICIPANTS: Patients discharged from the critical care unit after their first or only admission for two study periods, 26 February 2000 to 25 February 2001 and 26 February 2001 to 25 February 2002. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Survival to discharge from hospital after discharge from critical care and readmission to critical care. RESULTS: The introduction of a critical care outreach team improved survival to discharge from hospital after discharge from critical care by 6.8% (risk ratio 1.08). Readmission to critical care decreased by 6.4% (0.48). CONCLUSIONS: The activity of the critical care outreach team seems to improve patient survival to discharge from hospital and may reduce the number of readmissions to critical care.