Recommendations on basic requirements for intensive care units: structural and organizational aspects

OBJECTIVE: To provide guidance and recommendations for the planning or renovation of intensive care units (ICUs) with respect to the specific characteristics relevant to organizational and structural aspects of intensive care medicine. METHODOLOGY: The Working Group on Quality Improvement (WGQI) of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) identified the basic requirements for ICUs by a comprehensive literature search and an iterative process with several rounds of consensus finding with the participation of 47 intensive care physicians from 23 countries. The starting point of this process was an ESICM recommendation published in 1997 with the need for an updated version. RESULTS: The document consists of operational guidelines and design recommendations for ICUs. In the first part it covers the definition and objectives of an ICU, functional criteria, activity criteria, and the management of equipment. The second part deals with recommendations with respect to the planning process, floorplan and connections, accommodation, fire safety, central services, and the necessary communication systems. CONCLUSION: This document provides a detailed framework for the planning or renovation of ICUs based on a multinational consensus within the ESIC

Reconstructing ancient worlds: reception studies, archaeological representation and the interpretation of ancient Egypt

Archaeological studies of the reception and representation of the past have proliferated in recent years, but theoretical and methodological work on this area is limited. The wider cultural engagement with prehistoric and ancient cultures is a long-established practice that has continued from antiquity to the present. During this time, there has been an exchange of ideas between those who have investigated ancient material remains and others who have represented aspects of the past in more creative contexts. Such representations of prehistoric and ancient worlds play an important part in generating interpretations of the past, yet we still know little about how they relate to the archaeological process of creating knowledge. In the following discussion, concepts from the field of reception studies are considered in relation to establishing a sound basis for undertaking research on archaeological representation. A case study on the visual reception of ancient Egypt is presented as a means of suggesting how research on archaeologically inspired representations of the past might be structured