Rates increased over time, from about one in 10 patients 20 years ago to about one in three patients in the past five years. The exact reasons for this increase remain unclear.
ICU deaths declined 2% steadily annually at non-minority hospitals, according to a recent report. This was not true of minority-serving hospitals. Those hospitals also reported longer lengths of stay and more critical illness than non-minority hospitals.
In 2016, a suburban California emergency department began working on a new alert process designed to ensure medical patients not covered by alerts already in place would receive the same type of rapid, timely response that other alerts trigger. The resulting approach, dubbed “code critical,” has proven successful at accelerating care to a broad category of critically ill patients.
Certain hospitals are including information on their critical care triage policies in admission packets to explain how care or supplies will be allocated if rationing becomes necessary. Some clinicians feel ethically obligated to inform everyone up front of the possibility. Others think it is better to do so only if and when it becomes necessary.
Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is the third most common cardiovascular condition behind myocardial infarction and stroke, with an incidence rate of about one per 1000 person-years.1,2 Nearly 5% of the population will experience
Although studies in animals and preliminary reports in patients with ARDS suggested that statin administration might be beneficial in patients with the syndrome, this multicenter, double-blind clinical trial showed no benefit from simvastatin by any measure examined.
In this study of administrative data from patients admitted to 421 U.S. hospitals with acute chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations, 41% received long-acting bronchodilators, which are not recommended in this setting. Comparison with patients who did not receive the long-acting agents showed no evidence for clinical or economic benefit from their use.
Based on a recent systematic review of the literature, clinical guidelines were developed by the American Association of Blood Banks with the goal of providing platelet transfusion thresholds for adult patients in common clinical scenarios.
