Articles: intensive-care-units.
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Mayo Clinic proceedings · May 1999
Probable alcohol abuse or dependence: a risk factor for intensive-care readmission in patients undergoing elective vascular and thoracic surgical procedures. Mayo Perioperative Outcomes Group.
To determine whether alcohol abuse or dependence is a risk factor for perioperative complications, increased duration of hospital stay, and increased utilization of nursing resources in patients undergoing thoracic and vascular surgical procedures. ⋯ Except for the occurrence of alcohol withdrawal syndrome, study patients classified in the probable alcohol abuse group did not have more medical or surgical perioperative complications than patients in the nonalcoholic group. They did have significantly more intensive-care setting readmissions. Patients with documented alcohol withdrawal episodes frequently were dismissed without a diagnosis of substance abuse or dependence.
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A grass-roots effort led by nurses allowed a North Carolina hospital to cut the length of stay for patients on ventilators by 34% and the overall ICU length of stay by 25% in nine months. A ventilator protocol approved by physicians lets nurses and respiratory therapists begin weaning patients without calling the physician at every turn. Ventilator patients averaged savings of $35,000 in hospital charges during the nine-month study period.
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Pathologie-biologie · May 1999
[Can one use probabilistic protocols for antibiotic therapy in intensive care units?].
Due to a large spectrum, empiric antibiotics treatments participate to the increase in bacterial resistance. In order to improve its indications, the implementation of therapeutic guidelines in an ICU was studied. ⋯ The mean duration of empiric antibiotics administration was 3.2 days. It was concluded that it was possible to use guidelines of empiric antibiotic in an intensive care unit.