Intensive care unit
An Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is a specialized facility in a hospital that provides intensive care medicine.
Specialized types of ICUs include and the Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).
Equipment and Systems
Common equipment in an ICU includes mechanical ventilation to assist breathing through an endotracheal tube or a tracheotomy opening; dialysis equipment for renal problems; equipment for the constant monitoring of bodily functions; a web of intravenous lines, feeding tubes, nasogastric tubes, suction pumps, drains and catheters; and a wide array of drugs to treat the main condition(s), induce sedation, reduce pain, and prevent secondary infections.
Noise from the Nurses's Station's conversations, telephone calls, alarms, paging, equipment noises disturbs the patients. In the patient rooms, noise from the blood pressure checking equipment, respiratory equipment and the activity of nurses checking on the patients disturb the patient's sleep. White noise via a cable television can mask some of noises and help patient sleep through some of the alarms, etc.
Electrical wall receptables with pilot lights are suggested for use, especially on the receptacles connected to the emergency electrical generators. During an electrical power failure, the pilot lights show where electrical power is available. This can reduce the time needed to unplug equipment from the normal power receptacles and into the emergency power receptacles. The recommended receptables have the pilot light in a place that is not covered when devices are plugged into the receptacle.
Quality of care
Medical studies suggest a relation between ICU volume and quality of care for mechanically ventilated patients. [1] After adjustment for severity of illness, demographic variables, and characteristics of the ICUs (including staffing by intensivists), higher ICU volume was significantly associated with lower ICU and hospital mortality rates. For example, adjusted ICU mortality (for a patient at average predicted risk for ICU death) was 21.2% in hospitals with 87 to 150 mechanically ventilated patients annually, and 14.5% in hospitals with 401 to 617 mechanically ventilated patients annually. Hospitals with intermediate numbers of patients had outcomes between these extremes.
References
- ^ Kahn JM, Goss CH, Heagerty PJ, Kramer AA, O'Brien CR, Rubenfeld GD. (2006). "Hospital volume and the outcomes of mechanical ventilation". New England Journal of Medicine. 355 (1): 41–50. Retrieved 2006-08-02.
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