Year in review 2006: Critical Care--Resource management.
As health care resources become increasingly constrained, it is imperative that intensive care unit resources be optimized. In the years to come, a number of challenges to intensive care medicine will need to be addressed as society changes. Last year's Critical Care papers provided us with a number of interesting and highly accessed original papers dealing with health care resources. The information yielded by these studies can help us to deal with issues such as prognostication, early detection and treatment of delirium, prevention of medical errors and use of radiology resources in critically ill patients. Finally, several aspects of scientific research in critically ill patients were investigated, focusing on the possibility of obtaining informed consent and recall of having given informed consent.
Schultz
Marcus J
MJ
Department of Intensive Care Medicine, Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam, Meibergdreef 9, 1105 AZ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. m.j.schultz@amc.uva.nl
Kuiper
Michael
M
Spronk
Peter E
PE
Vroom
Margreeth B
MB
Gajic
Ognjen
O
D003422:Critical Care / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000639:trends*; D003693:Delirium / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000517:prevention & control; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods; D011871:Radiology / Q000458:organization & administration