title: Patient safety in the critical care environment.
abstract: Improving the quality and safety of intensive care unit (ICU) care in the United States is a significant challenge for the future. Obtaining improvement in systems of care is difficult given the reactionary mode physicians tend to enter when dealing with moment-to-moment crises. It will be important to implement quality and safety measures that are already supported by evidence. Improvement of device safety will be critical to reducing the large number of device-related complications that occur in US ICUs. Prospective collection of adverse events with rigorous analysis will be important to allow systematic errors to be exposed and corrected.
authors.affiliation: Division of Vascular Surgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI 53226, USA. prossi@mcw.edu
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Rossi
authors.forename: Charles E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Edmiston
mesh_terms: D003140:Communicable Disease Control; D003422:Critical Care / Q000592:standards; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000191:economics / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging; D004869:Equipment Safety; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000592:standards*; D019300:Medical Errors; D061214:Patient Safety; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; D012308:Risk Management; D014187:Transportation of Patients; D014481:United States