Triage and Ongoing Care for Critically Ill Patients in the Emergency Department: Results from a National Survey of Emergency Physicians

Introduction: We conducted a cross-sectional study at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to elicit emergency physician (EP) perceptions regarding intensive care unit (ICU) triage decisions and ongoing management for boarding of ICU patients in the emergency department (ED). We assessed factors influencing the disposition decision for critically ill patients in the ED to characterize EPs’ perceptions about ongoing critical care delivery in the ED while awaiting ICU admission.Methods: Through content expert review and pilot testing, we iteratively developed a 25-item written survey targeted to EPs, eliciting current ICU triage structure, opinions on factors influencing ICU admission decisions, and views on caring for critically ill patients “boarding” in the ED for >4-6 hours.Results: We approached 732 EPs at a large, national emergency medicine conference, achieving 93.6% response and completion rate, with 54% academic and 46% community participants. One-fifth reported having formal ICU admission criteria, although only 36.6% reported adherence. Common factors influencing EPs’ ICU triage decisions were illness severity (91.1%), ICU interventions needed (87.6%), and diagnosis (68.2%), while ICU bed availability (13.5%) and presence of other critically ill patients in ED (10.2%) were less or not important. While 72.1% reported frequently caring for ICU boarders, respondents identified high patient volume (61.3%) and inadequate support staffing (48.6%) as the most common challenges in caring for boarding ICU patients.Conclusion: Patient factors (eg, diagnosis, illness severity) were seen as more important than system factors (eg, bed availability) in triaging ED patients to the ICU. Boarding ICU patients is a common challenge for more than two-thirds of EPs, exacerbated by ED volume and staffing constraints

Integrating palliative care with intensive care for critically ill patients with lung cancer

With newer information indicating more favorable outcomes of intensive care therapy for lung cancer patients, intensivists increasingly are willing to initiate an aggressive trial of this therapy. Concerns remain, however, that the experience of the intensive care unit for patients with lung cancer and their families often may be distressing. Regardless of prognosis, all patients with critical illness should receive high-quality palliative care, including symptom control, communication about appropriate care goals, and support for both patient and family throughout the illness trajectory. In this article, we suggest strategies for integrating palliative care with intensive care for critically ill lung cancer patients. We address assessment and management of symptoms, knowledge and skill needed for effective communication, and interdisciplinary collaboration for patient and family support. We review the role of expert consultants in providing palliative care in the intensive care unit, while highlighting the responsibility of all critical care clinicians to address basic palliative care needs of patients and their families

Effect of Palliative Care–Led Meetings for Families of Patients With Chronic Critical Illness: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Family caregivers of patients with chronic critical illness experience significant psychological distress

Use of weekly, low dose, high frequency ultrasound for hard to heal venous leg ulcers: the VenUS III randomised controlled trial

Objective To assess the clinical effectiveness of weekly delivery of low dose, high frequency therapeutic ultrasound in conjunction with standard care for hard to heal venous leg ulcers

The development of sentence-interpretation strategies in monolingual German-learning children with and without specific language impairment

Previous research on sentence comprehension conducted with German-learning children has concentrated on the role of case marking and word order in typically developing children. This paper compares, the performance of German-learning children with language impairment (age 4-6 years) and without language impairment (aged 2-6, 8-9 years) in two experiments that systematically vary the cues animacy, case marking; word-order, and subject-verb agreement. The two experiments differ with regard to the choice of case marking: in the first it is distinct but in the second it is neutralized. The theoretical framework is the competition model developed by Bates and Mac Whinney and their collaborators, a variant of the parallel distributed processing models. It is hypothesized that children of either population first appreciate the cue animacy that can be processed locally, that is, "on the spot," before they turn to more distributed cues leading ultimately up to subject-verb agreement, which presupposes the comparison of various constituents before an interpretation can be established. Thus agreement is more "costly" in processing than animacy or the (more) local cue initial NP. In experiment I with unambiguous case markers it is shown that the typically developing children proceed from animacy to the nominative (predominantly in coalition with the initial NP) to agreement, while in the second experiment with ambiguous case markers these children turn from animacy to the initial NP and then to agreement. The impaired children also progress from local to distributed cues. Yet, in contrast to the control group, they do not acknowledge the nominative in coalition with the initial NP in the first experiment but only in support of agreement. However, although they do not seem to appreciate distinct case markers to any large extent in the first experiment, they are irritated if such distinctions are lacking: in experiment II all impaired children turn to. animacy (some in coalition with the initial NP and/or particular word orders). In the discussion, the relationship between short-term memory and processing as well as the relationship between production and comprehension of case markers and agreement are addressed. Further research is needed to explore in more detail "cue costs" in sentence comprehension

Development and validation of a printed information brochure for families of chronically critically ill patients*

Families and other surrogate decision-makers for chronically critically ill patients often lack information about patient prognosis or options for care. This study describes an approach to develop and validate a printed information brochure about chronic critical illness aimed at improving comprehension of the disease process and outcomes for patients’ families and other surrogate decision-makers

Percepción de imagen corporal como factor condicionante del índice de masa corporal en médicos residentes del Hospital de Clínicas

Uno de los factores condicionantes del peso corporal es la percepción que la persona tiene de su imagen corporal. El objetivo fue conocer la percepción de imagen corporal según el índice de masa corporal (IMC) en 107 Médicos Residentes del Hospital de Clínicas.Se utilizó un diseño observacional descriptivo de corte transverso. Se exploraron las variables edad, sexo, circunferencia abdominal, peso, talla, IMC, percepción del peso corporal. La circunferencia abdominal fue de riesgo elevado en 37% de los varones y en 16% de las mujeres, de riesgo muy elevado en 13% de varones y en 29% de las mujeres (p=0,009). En cuanto al IMC la media fue de 25,7±4,6; estando en peso normal el 45% y en sobrepeso el 43%. Se encontró más mujeres con peso normal (63% vs 28%). Los varones presentan más sobrepeso (61% vs 28%) (p=0,0009). En cuanto a la percepción del peso corporal se perciben con obesidad 23%; con sobrepeso 47% y con peso normal 28%. Cruzando los datos con los IMC verdaderos, tenemos que el 43% no tiene la percepción real de acuerdo a su IMC. La concordancia en cuanto a IMC real y la percepción es del 63%. Casi la mitad de los residentes estudiados no tiene la percepción real de acuerdo a su IMC. La percepción de obesidad es mayor en mujeres que en hombres acorde a su IMC real. Se requiere de más investigaciones en referencia al tema aplicándolo a toda la población del hospital para crear medidas educativas de oportuna intervención en la salud del personal sanitario