Articles: intensive-care-units.
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To evaluate the accuracy, reliability, clinical effectiveness and economic impact of bedside pulse oximetry and capnometry as used routinely in the adult critical care environment. ⋯ Pulse oximetry may expedite accurate and continuous monitoring of oxygenation at the bedside of the critically ill adult patients. Nevertheless, there are clinical limitations, and caution is needed before oximeters are accepted for routine use. The routine bedside use of capnometry should be discouraged.
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Nurs. Clin. North Am. · Mar 1992
Designing a critical care unit: description of a multidisciplinary process.
Overall we are pleased to find that what sometimes seemed like hopeless space restrictions could be overcome by a combination of prudent compromise and innovative design. Even though the process consumed much time, the design of this new ICU turned out to be a satisfying process, marked by a true cooperative spirit among a group with diverse backgrounds and skills, all working toward a common goal.
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Critical care medicine · Mar 1992
Case ReportsInfluence of political power, medical provincialism, and economic incentives on the rationing of surgical intensive care unit beds.
To determine factors influencing rationing decisions in a surgical ICU during a temporary nursing shortage when two to six of the unit's 16 beds were closed. ⋯ Surgical attending physicians rarely used other open inhouse ICU beds when surgical ICU beds were unavailable. Political power, medical provincialism, and income maximization overrode medical suitability in the provision of critical care services.