Articles: intensive-care-units.
-
Our objective was to determine the extent to which Intensive Care Unit (ICU) physicians are aware of charges for commonly used blood tests. We also wished to ascertain ICU physicians' perception of their motivation for, and appropriateness of, test ordering. Attending physicians and Internal Medicine residents in four university-affiliated ICUs in Hamilton were surveyed using a self-administered questionnaire. ⋯ Physicians perceived that they pay insufficient attention to the risk of anemia and to issue of cost. Their feeling that test ordering in the ICU is excessive suggests that they may be open to modifying their practice. Given the large proportion of hospital resources allocated to the intensive care unit, interventions to decrease test ordering are warranted.
-
The Journal of pediatrics · Oct 1992
Use of analgesic agents for invasive medical procedures in pediatric and neonatal intensive care units.
The purpose of this study was to assess the use of analgesic agents for invasive medical procedures in pediatric and neonatal intensive care units. The directors of 38 pediatric units and 31 neonatal units reported that analgesics were infrequently used for intravenous cannulation (10%), suprapubic bladder aspiration (8%), urethral catheterization (2%), or venipuncture (2%). Analgesics were used significantly more regularly in pediatric than in neonatal intensive care units for arterial line placement, bone marrow aspiration, central line placement, chest tube insertion, paracentesis, and lumbar puncture.
-
Neurological intensive care has evolved from the principles of respiratory care established during the poliomyelitis epidemics into a broad field encompassing all of the acute and serious aspects of neurological disease. The economic and political complexities of modern intensive care play a major role in organizing a unit and building a program. ⋯ The "neuro-intensivist" is trained to defragment medical care by combining knowledge of neurological diseases with the techniques of intensive care. Future directions include the clinical implementation of brain resuscitation and brain-sparing therapies, sophisticated monitoring of electrophysiological and intracranial physiological indices, and further understanding of the dysfunction of other organs that follows brain and nerve failure.