Rationing intensive care

The Intensive Care Lifeboat: a survey of lay attitudes to rationing dilemmas in neonatal intensive care

BACKGROUND Resuscitation and treatment of critically ill newborn infants is associated with relatively high mortality, morbidity and cost. Guidelines relating to resuscitation have traditionally focused on the best interests of infants. There are, however, limited resources available in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), meaning that difficult decisions sometimes need to be made. This stu...

Rationing in the intensive care unit in case of full bed occupancy: a survey among intensive care unit physicians.

BACKGROUND Internationally, there is no consensus on how to best deal with admission requests in cases of full ICU bed occupancy. Knowledge about the degree of dissension and insight into the reasons for this dissension is lacking. Information about the opinion of ICU physicians can be used to improve decision-making regarding allocation of ICU resources. The aim of this study was to: Assess wh...

Rationing and critical care medicine.

As healthcare expenditures have continued to grow in the United States and elsewhere, the demand for cost-cutting measures has increased. This has led many to wonder if we are, in fact, rationing health care. Critical care is characterized by very high expenditures on a relatively few number of patients, many of whom do not survive, and it is therefore a likely place where rationing could occur...

Rationing health care in Canada.

Canada has been able to develop a fairly successful system of healthcare rationing by balancing the conflicting concerns of equal access and cost efficiency, federal funding and provincial control, and public sector management and private sector provision. Financial constraints limit the kinds of services included within the notion of equal access, however, forcing healthcare providers to make ...

Health Care Rationing: A Critical Evaluation