WellStar Kennestone Hospital Part of Worldwide ICU Mobility Movement

ICU Mobility Team Working to Improve Patient Outcomes

WellStar Kennestone Hospital's mobility team, from left, Wendy Forman, physical therapist; Martin Fortes, clinical care partner; and Caroline Hallen, RN

WellStar Kennestone Hospital is working to improve ICU outcomes by getting patients up and moving. The hospital is the only Georgia facility in the Mobilization-Network, an international network for early mobilization of mechanically ventilated intensive care patients.

Kennestone’s mobility program began in October 2012, with the help of Dale Needham, M.D., Ph.D., from Johns Hopkins University, and Christiane Perme, physical therapist, of Houston’s Methodist Hospital. The mobility team traveled to Houston to train with Perme and has participated in two Institutes for Healthcare Improvement webinars on sedation use and early mobility.

The team works with non-sedated patients and those sedated and vented. Caroline Hallen, RN, mobility team member, said it’s important to remember mobility does not mean walking.

“Only a small portion of our patients walk,” she explained. “There is a wide spectrum of what we might do in a session, which typically lasts 30-45 minutes. Even if we max assist, holding the patient up ourselves, we try to at least sit the patient on the edge of the bed.”

The trend in critical care is not only for safe and early mobility, but for decreased sedation. “That means many patients will be intubated and not sedated,” explained Hallen. “Studies show sedatives can cause acute brain dysfunction. By reducing sedation, we reduce delirium, bedrest, vent days, length of stay and improve discharge disposition.”