Articles: intensive-care-units.
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A satisfaction study investigates whether a more liberal ICU visitation policy satisfactorily meets visitors' and nurses' needs and expectations.
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Since 1982 an emergency ambulance manned by a physician and two emergency medical technicians has been operated in the Reykjavik area. The physicians have followed guidelines from the American Heart Association (AHA). Until 1986 the AHA guidelines had bicarbonate and in some instances calcium as first line treatment in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). ⋯ When sudden cardiorespiratory arrest is witnessed the probability of survival is multiplied. We conclude that the results of ACLS outside the hospital in Reykjavik and surrounding area continue to be among the best. Changes in ACLS guidelines do not appear to have increased survival.
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Intensive care medicine · Jan 2000
Multicenter StudyTiss 76 and Tiss 28: correlation of two therapeutic activity indices on a Spanish multicenter ICU database.
To evaluate the performance of the Simplified Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System (TISS 28) on an independent database and to determine its relation to the original Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System (TISS 76). ⋯ There is a strong correlation between TISS 28 and TISS 76 scores in the PAEEC database and TISS 28 works correctly in our setting.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2000
Design principles of a clinical information system for intensive care units (ICUData).
The aim of this project was to develop a cost-effective, standard-based and scalable clinical information system for use in Intensive Care Units (ICUs). The development started in 1998 at the University Giessen, Germany. ⋯ The implementation of the system in two further ICUs is scheduled for the year 2000. The following article describes some of the principal design goals of the system, including the medical vision that drove its interface design, and focuses on the technological underpinnings of the overall system architecture.
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To evaluate the performance of intensive care unit (ICU) the severity scores are measured on the first day; organ system dysfunctions are measured several times during the stay. The severity scores are developed from large data bases of thousands of patients. They include the patient age, previous health status, severity and sometimes the main diagnosis. ⋯ By comparing the observed and expected mortality rates the Standard Mortality Ratio (SMR) may be measured. The data collection must be rigorous, the studied population must be similar to the population of the large data bases. Other elements of performance may be evaluated, such as the cost-efficiency or the quality of life or surviving patients.