Stakeholder Perspectives on Improving an Advance Practice Provider Emergency Department Critical Care Step-Down Unit

Abstract In response to concerns about the continued care and safety of critically ill and injured patients, our academic, urban, tertiary care, level I trauma center adult emergency department (ED) created an advanced practice provider (APP)-staffed critical care step-down unit (CCSU). We conducted semistructured interviews of ED physicians, APPs, and nursing staff about the value added by the CCSU as well as suggestions for its improvement. The results from the interviews showed staff were highly complimentary of the CCSU and recommended expansion of its hours and APP staffing, but indicated areas of improvement. Future research can evaluate how implementation of stakeholder suggestions improved the CCSU’s operations.