Quality of care before admission to intensive care is often poor

Quality of care before admission to intensive care is often poor

Emergency admissions have risen by 50% since 1984, but this rise in quantity should not be at the expense of quality. McQuillanet al (p 1853) used confidential inquiry methods to investigatethe quality of care received by a consecutive cohort of 100 adultemergency patients in two hospitals. Oxygen therapy; managementof airway, breathing, or circulation; or monitoring was suboptimalin over 50 patients. At least 39 patients were admitted late intheir illness. These factors may be associated with increasedmorbidity and mortality and avoidable admissions to intensivecare. The authors suggest a back to basics approach to managingdysfunction of airway, breathing, and circulation. The structureand process of acute care need reviewing to meet the challengeof the increasingly frenetic workload of the NHS.

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

Technorati What's this?

Relevant Article

Confidential inquiry into quality of care before admission to intensive care: Peter McQuillan, Sally Pilkington, Alison Allan, Bruce Taylor, Alasdair Short, Giles Morgan, Mick Nielsen, David Barrett, and Gary Smith
BMJ 1998 316: 1853-1858. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]