Comment in:

Crit Care Med. 2008 Apr;36(4):1385-6.

Crit Care Med. 2008 Oct;36(10):2961-2; author reply 2962.

Crit Care Med. 2008 Oct;36(10):2963-4; author reply 2965.

Critical care workforce.

Division of Critical Care, Department of Medicine, Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, Idaho Falls, ID, USA. kenkrell@datawav.net

OBJECTIVE: The recent Health Resources and Services Administration report on critical care manpower details the impending crisis in the critical care workforce in the United States. DESIGN: A review of the Health Resources and Services Administration statistics indicate the present structure for training critical care physicians through combined pulmonary/critical care fellowships is, and will remain, woefully inadequate to meet demand. INTERVENTION: Training for intensive care unit physicians will require new paradigms for training, including consideration of free-standing critical care residencies and multidisciplinary critical care fellowships. CONCLUSION: Unless the training structure changes, the worsening shortage of intensivists will precipitate a crisis, resulting in the disintegration of critical care delivery in the United States.

PMID: 18379263 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]