Consider defining HDU admission and discharge criteria for your hospital.

Patients should be reviewed daily and discharged to a ward when they no longer require HDU care.

The senior clinician in charge of the patient's care must be informed of their admission to critical care, and ideally should see and refer the patient if time allows. Delays in admission to critical care should be minimized.

On admission a treatment plan should be produced and discussed with the senior critical care clinician.

Discharge from critical care should occur early in the day when possible. There must be a thorough handover to ward staff.

Consider setting up a Critical Care Outreach service to review patients recently discharged from critical care, and patients causing concern on the wards. These are often staffed by senior nurses and provide educational and practical support to ward nurses caring for patients at risk of deterioration.