Qatar medical journal
-
Bjorn Ibsen, an anesthetist who pioneered positive pressure ventilation as a treatment option during the Copenhagen polio epidemic of 1952, set up the first Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in Europe in 1953. He managed polio patients on positive pressure ventilation together with physicians and physiologists in a dedicated ward, where one nurse was assigned to each patient. In that sense Ibsen is more or less the father of intensive care medicine as a specialty and also an advocate of the one-to-one nursing ratio for critically ill patients. ⋯ The infrastructure, technology, and manpower to put this in place also has associated costs. As the demand for ICU care will rise further in the future, intensivists will play an even more important role in the healthcare system that itself is under enormous economic pressure to ensure the best quality of care for critically ill patients. Besides excellent knowledge and hard skills, intensivists need to be team players, communicators, facilitators, and arbitrators to achieve the best results in collaboration with all involved in patient treatment.
-
Qatar medical journal · Jan 2019
EditorialTrauma intensive care unit (TICU) at Hamad General Hospital.
Trauma is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide, and thus represents a great global health challenge. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 9% of deaths in the world are the result of trauma.1 In addition, approximately 100 million people are temporarily or permanently disabled every year.2 The situation is no different in Qatar, and injury related morbidity and mortality is increasing in the entire region, with road traffic collisions (RTCs) being the most common mechanism.1 It is well recognized now that trauma care provided in high-volume, dedicated, level-one trauma centers, improves outcome. Studies have also looked at what are the components of a trauma system that contribute to their effectiveness2. ⋯ It is well staffed with highly trained and qualified personnel, and utilizes the latest in technology and state-of-the-art equipment. It performs very well, when compared to other similar units in the world, and achieves a comparable, or even lower mortality rate. With continued great support from the hospital, corporation administration, and Ministry of Public Health, the future goals of the TICU will be to maintain and improve upon the high standards of clinical care it provides, as well as perform a high quality and quantity of research, quality improvement initiatives, and educational work, in order for it to be amongst the best trauma critical care units in the world.
-
Background: Critical care is a clinically complex and resource intensive discipline, the world over. Consequently, the delivery of these services has been compounded by the need to sustain a specialized workforce, while maintaining consistent and high standards.1,2 The regionalization of critical care resources and the creation of referral networks has been one approach that has led to success in this area.2-7 However, as steps have been made towards regionalization, so too has the need to transfer patients between facilities in order to access these services. The effects of this are already apparent, where estimates in the United States have found that 1 in 20 patients requiring intensive and critical care resulted in transfer to another facility.2 The need for such transfers are equally varied as they are common and include: no critical care facilities at the referring facility; no staffed critical care bed availability at referring facility; requirements for expertise and/or specialists facilitates not available at referring site; and the repatriation of patients back to their original facility.6,8 An increase in the number of patients requiring the continuation of critical care in-transit has led to a need to expand the borders of traditional intensive care beyond the confines of the hospital. ⋯ Conclusion: In modern healthcare, to deliver a consistent and high-level critical care service in any setting, the movement of patients is inevitable. However, in order to ensure the continuum of this level of care and maintain the highest standards of patient safety and quality of care in-transit, specialized transfer services are a necessity. The multidisciplinary nature of critical care transfer and retrieval dictates the cooperation between multiple in-hospital and out of hospital specialties and is a fundamental underlying concept in the success of such services.
-
Qatar medical journal · Jan 2014
Determinants of non-urgent Emergency Department attendance among females in Qatar.
The use of emergency department (ED) services for non-urgent conditions is well-studied in many Western countries but much less so in the Middle East and Gulf region. While the consequences are universal-a drain on ED resources and poor patient outcomes-the causes and solutions are likely to be region and country specific. Unique social and economic circumstances also create gender-specific motivations for patient attendance. Alleviating demand on ED services requires understanding these circumstances, as past studies have shown. We undertook this study to understand why female patients with low-acuity conditions choose the emergency department in Qatar over other healthcare options. ⋯ Reducing the number of low-acuity cases in the emergency department at HGH will require interventions aimed at encouraging patients with non-urgent conditions to use alternative healthcare facilities. Potential interventions include policy changes that require employers to either provide workers with a health card or compel employees to acquire one for themselves.
-
Qatar medical journal · Jan 2012
Survey and management of anaesthesia related complications in PACU.
It is the first prospective study about anaesthesia related postoperative complications conducted in Hamad General Hospital. Total 1128 adult patients admitted to the Post Anaesthesia Care Unit (PACU) during a period of three months were surveyed for anaesthesia related complications. Documented complications were found in 48 patients i.e. 4.25% of patients' population. ⋯ Most of the complications happened to healthy ASA I and II patients. Factors that play major role in determining the immediate postoperative complications were the ASA status, the level of anaesthesia seniority attending the patient, the urgency and the nature of procedure. We tried to find other factors that may influence complications in addition, discussed below.