The descriptions for this measure come from source: www.leapfroggroup.org.

"A critical care unit or Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is a special part of the hospital that provides care for extremely ill patients. Hospitals should have special doctors called intensivists working in the ICU. Intensivists are physicians with advanced training in intensive or critical care. They learn to manage problems in the ICU and help to reduce errors. There are higher death rates in hospitals where ICU patients are not cared for by intensivists.

Hospitals that fully meet Leapfrog's standard on ICU Physician Staffing have intensivists present at least eight hours a day, seven days per week. When not present in the ICU, the Intensivist responds to pages within five minutes or has another physician, physician’s assistant, nurse practitioner, or trained nurse reach the patient within five minutes."

About this measure

The Leapfrog Group scores this measure based on the availability of intensivists managing the care of patients in the ICU.  Scores are reported as:

1 = Willing to Report
2 = Some Progress
3 = Substantial Progress
4 = Fully Meets Standards

Note: In this measure, a higher number is better.