Critical care medicine
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Critical care medicine · Jun 2019
Multicenter StudyCenter Effects in Hospital Mortality of Critically Ill Patients With Hematologic Malignancies.
We aimed to investigate center effects on hospital mortality of ICU patients with hematologic malignancies and to explore interactions between center and patients characteristics. ⋯ Between-center heterogeneity in hospital mortality was confirmed after adjustment for individual prognostic factors. It was partially explained by center experience in treating oncology patients. Interestingly, center effect was similar in magnitude to that of known mortality risk factors.
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Critical care medicine · Jun 2019
Patient and Family Engagement During Treatment Decisions in an ICU: A Discourse Analysis of the Electronic Health Record.
Shared decision-making is recommended for critically ill adults who face major, preference-sensitive treatment decisions. Yet, little is known about when and how patients and families are engaged in treatment decision-making over the longitudinal course of a critical illness. We sought to characterize patterns of treatment decision-making by evaluating clinician discourse in the electronic health record of critically ill adults who develop chronic critical illness or die in an ICU. ⋯ Clinician discourse in the electronic health record reveals that patient physiology strongly guides treatment decision-making throughout the longitudinal course of critical illness. Documentation of patient and family engagement in treatment decision-making is limited until available medical treatments fail to achieve physiologic goals.
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Critical care medicine · Jun 2019
Observational StudyEnhanced Renal Clearance in Patients With Hemorrhagic Stroke.
To evaluate enhanced renal clearance over time in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage or intracerebral hemorrhage via measured creatinine clearance and to compare measured creatinine clearance to creatinine clearance calculated by the Cockcroft-Gault equation and estimated glomerular filtration rate calculated by the Modification of Diet in Renal Diseases equation. ⋯ A substantial group of patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage or intracerebral hemorrhage experienced enhanced renal clearance, which may be otherwise unknown to clinicians. Enhanced renal clearance may lead to increased renal solute elimination over what is expected, resulting in subtherapeutic renally eliminated drug concentrations. This may result in underexposure to critical medications, leading to treatment failure and other medical complications.
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Critical care medicine · Jun 2019
Observational StudyHealth Insurance and Out-of-Pocket Costs in the Last Year of Life Among Decedents Utilizing the ICU.
Use of intensive care is increasing in the United States and may be associated with high financial burden on patients and their families near the end of life. Our objective was to estimate out-of-pocket costs in the last year of life for individuals who required intensive care in the months prior to death and examine how these costs vary by insurance coverage. ⋯ Across all categories of insurance coverage, out-of-pocket spending in the last 12 months of life is high and represents a significant portion of assets for many patients requiring intensive care and their families. Medicare fee-for-service alone does not insulate individuals from the financial burden of high-intensity care, due to lack of an out-of-pocket maximum and a relatively high co-payment for hospitalizations. Medicaid plays an important role in the social safety net, providing the most complete hospital coverage of all the insurance groups, as well as significantly financing long-term care.