Intensive & critical care nursing : the official journal of the British Association of Critical Care Nurses
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Intensive Crit Care Nurs · Aug 2016
Outcomes and nursing workload related to obese patients in the intensive care unit.
To compare the morbidity and mortality of patients with a body mass index (BMI) < and ≥30kg/m(2) and to identify risk factors related to death and length of stay of obese patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). ⋯ Although the morbidity, mortality and nursing workload were not significantly different between the obese and nonobese groups, our results contribute additional information to the relationship between obesity and clinical discharge and inform future research.
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Intensive Crit Care Nurs · Aug 2016
Quiet time for mechanically ventilated patients in the medical intensive care unit.
Sleep disruption occurs frequently in critically ill patients. The primary aim of this study was to examine the effect of quiet time (QT) on patient sedation frequency, sedation and delirium scores; and to determine if consecutive QTs influenced physiologic measures (heart rate, mean arterial blood pressure and respiratory rate). ⋯ QT may influence sedation administration and promote patient rest. Future studies are required to further understand the influence of QT on mechanically ventilated patients in the intensive care unit.
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Intensive care unit (ICU) costs account for a great part of a hospital's expenses. The objective of the present study was to measure the patient-specific cost of ICU treatment, to identify the most important cost drivers in ICU and to examine the role of various contributing factors in cost configuration. A retrospective cost analysis of all ICU patients who were admitted during 2011 in a Greek General, seven-bed ICU and stayed for at least 24hours was performed, by applying bottom-up analysis. ⋯ Medical cause of admission, severe illness and increased length of stay, mechanical ventilation and dialysis were the factors associated with cost escalation. ICU variable cost is patient-specific, varies according to each patient's needs and is influenced by several factors. The exact estimation of variable cost is a pre-requisite in order to control ICU expenses.