Articles: intensive-care-units.
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Intensive care medicine · Nov 1995
The impact of HIV testing on blood utilization in the intensive care unit in patients with gastrointestinal bleeding.
To determine whether the AIDS epidemic has influenced physician use of blood products in intensive care unit management of gastrointestinal hemorrhage. ⋯ These data indicate that physicians are transfusing patients at lower hemoglobin levels than they did before the beginning of HIV testing. However, there has been no decrease in the total median amount of blood products transfused since that time. This change in practice may be due to increased concern about HIV transmission through blood products and suggests the need for greater awareness of existing transfusion guidelines.
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Am. J. Clin. Pathol. · Oct 1995
ReviewPoint-of-care testing in the intensive care unit. The intensive care physician's perspective.
Technological advancements have, for the first time, made the entire laboratory testing process feasible at the bedside. Physicians working in the intensive care unit have always had immediate access to patients' medical history, physical examination, and physiologic monitoring data, but had to wait for laboratory results. ⋯ The concept of point-of-care testing in the intensive care unit is relatively new, but as technology progresses, physicians will undoubtedly become aware and use it in the intensive care unit. This article focuses on the intensive care physician's perspective on laboratory testing, the evolution of the intensive care unit laboratory, advantages of point-of-care testing in that setting, new developments in arterial blood gas analyzers and monitors, and cost-effectiveness and incorporation of point-of-care testing.
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Critical care clinics · Oct 1995
ReviewThe cost of sedating and paralyzing the critically ill patient.
The cost of health care is consuming an ever-increasing amount of United State's gross domestic product. It is estimated that 15% of health care dollars are spent in the ICU. ⋯ Many of the sedatives, analgesics, and neuromuscular blocking agents have high acquisition and indirect costs. Educating ICU practitioners on cost issues and key indications for these drugs not only may help with cost containment in the ICU but also can improve patient care.