Crit Care Resusc
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Determine the prevalence and outcomes of patients with life-limiting illness (LLI) admitted to Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Units (ICUs). ⋯ Patients with LLI account for almost a quarter of ICU admissions in Australia and New Zealand, require prolonged ICU and hospital care, and have high mortality in subsequent years. This knowledge should be used to identify this vulnerable cohort of patients, and to ensure that treatment is aligned to each patient's values and realistic goals.
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Intensive care unit (ICU) cost estimates are critical to achieving healthcare system efficiency and sustainability. We aimed to review the published literature describing ICU costs in Australia. ⋯ Available ICU cost estimates are largely outdated and lack granular data. Future research is needed to estimate ICU costs that better reflect current practice and patient complexity and to determine the best methods for generating these estimates.
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This article aims to examine the impact of nursing workforce skill-mix (percentage of critical care registered nurses [CCRN]) in the intensive care unit (ICU) during a patient's stay. ⋯ The nursing skill-mix in ICU impacts outcomes and should be routinely monitored. Health system regulators, hospital administrators and ICU leaders should ensure nursing workforce planning and education align with these findings to maximise patient outcomes.
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Monitoring healthcare quality is challenging in paediatric critical care due to measure variability, data collection burden, and uncertainty regarding consumer and clinician priorities. ⋯ We defined a 51-item core measurement set for paediatric critical care, aligned with clinician and consumer priorities. Next steps are implementation and methodological evaluation in quality programs, and where appropriate, retirement of redundant measures.
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To describe the characteristics and outcomes of Pacific and European patients admitted to New Zealand (NZ) intensive care units (ICUs) 2009-2018. ⋯ Pacific ethnicity was not associated with increased day 180 mortality compared to European ethnicity; Pacific patients admitted to the ICU were more likely to be discharged home than European patients.