AIM It is everyday news that we need more intensive care unit (ICU) beds, thus effective use of existing resources is imperative. The aim of this literature review was to critically analyse current literature on how organizational factors, individual factors and teamwork factors influence the ICU discharge process. A better understanding of discharge practices has the potential to ultimately in...

OBJECTIVES To identify incidence and risk factors for new-onset gastrointestinal bleeding (GIB) in a medical intensive care unit (ICU), a topic for which there is a paucity of recent studies. DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. SETTING Medical ICUs at our tertiary-care hospital, from 2007 to 2013. PATIENTS Patients who developed clinically significant GIB after entering the ICU. INTERVEN...

BACKGROUND Intensive care unit (ICU) readmission after cardiac surgery is believed to be associated with higher in-hospital mortality and may predict poor outcomes. ICU readmissions use resources and increase treatment costs. AIM To determine reasons for readmission to ICU, evaluate outcomes in these patients, and identify factors predisposing to the need for readmission to ICU. METHODS We ...

Patients and Methods The study was done in the HagaZiekenhuis, a 600-bed teaching hospital in The Hague, Netherlands with all specialties available including cardiac surgery and neurosurgery. The hospital has a 16-bed adult ICU and an ICU based medical emergency team (MET). A MEWS is used throughout the hospital to monitor patients’ vital signs and a score of 3 points or more is the threshold t...

PURPOSE The objectives of this study were to find factors related to medical intensive care unit (ICU) readmission and to develop a prediction index for determining patients who are likely to be readmitted to medical ICUs. MATERIALS AND METHODS We performed a retrospective cohort study of 343 consecutive patients who were admitted to the medical ICU of a single medical center from January 1, ...

BACKGROUND The admission of patients with malignancies to an intensive care unit (ICU) still remains a matter of substantial controversy. The identification of factors that potentially influence the patient outcome can help ICU professionals make appropriate decisions. PATIENTS AND METHODS 90 adult patients with hematological malignancy (leukemia 47.8%, high-grade lymphoma 50%) admitted to th...

The aim of this study was to obtain insight into which proportion of cancer patients is admitted to an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and how their survival, demographic, and clinical characteristics relate to cancer patients not admitted to the ICU. Data from patients registered with cancer between 2006 and 2011 in four hospitals in the Netherlands were linked to the Dutch National Intensive Care E...

INTRODUCTION This study examined the potential effects of time to tracheostomy on mechanical ventilation duration, intensive care unit (ICU), and hospital length of stay (LOS), and ICU and hospital mortality. METHODS Cohort observational study was conducted in a tertiary care medical-surgical ICU based on a prospectively collected ICU database. We included 531 consecutive patients who were ad...

STUDY OBJECTIVES To assess the effect of an intensive glycemia management protocol on the cost of care of a heterogeneous population of critically ill adult patients. DESIGN Economic analysis of a 1,600-patient "before-and-after" study of intensive glycemia management. SETTING Fourteen-bed mixed medical-surgical adult ICU of a university-affiliated community teaching hospital. PATIENTS Ei...