Managing the Emergency Department
The emergency department is a busy, chaotic environment where lives are at risk and the needs of individual patients must be met and patient flow must be maintained
Month January 2019
ICU Outreach
ICU Outreach, critical care outreach teams (CCOT), ICU liaison, intensive care. CCOT services were developed to meet the actual or potential needs of patients through critical care provision ‘without walls’
ICU Response to a Pandemic
ICU Response to a Pandemic. A pandemic is a global outbreak of an infectious disease. This page uses influenza virus as an example
New Equipment Purchasing
Equipment. Asses need; funding; purchase and implementation; education; asses benefits (audit, satisfaction, cost-benefit analysis)
ICU Staffing
In most of the world, critically ill patients are managed in closed ICUs, the closed vs open-model debate is primarily of interest in the USA
ICU Design and Staffing
minimum standards relating to work practice, caseload, staffing and operational requirements, design, equipment and monitoring for Level III, II, I and Paediatric Intensive Care Units (PICUs)
Changes in ICU Mortality
Overall, ICU mortality continues to improve but there are reasons why mortality improvement is not faster
Renal Tubular Acidosis and Uraemic Acidosis
Metabolic acidosis can occur in both acute and chronic renal disorders; the anion gap may be elevated, due to uraemic acidosis; the anion gap may be normal, due to renal tubular acidosis (RTA)
Three Axis Alignment, Two Curve Theory and the Three Column Model
The ‘sniffing the morning breeze position’, better termed ‘ear-to-sternal notch’ positioning, is a combination of atlanto-occipital extension and neck flexion (neck flexion of 35° and face plane extension of 15° is cited as ideal) and is considered optimal for direct laryngoscopy
Surgical Cricothyroidotomy
Surgical Cricothyroidotomy; open procedure performed to secure the airway via an incision in the cricothyroid membrane - aka emergency surgical airway (ESA)
Sodium Bicarbonate and Diabetic Ketoacidosis
Sodium Bicarbonate and Diabetic Ketoacidosis. The correction of the acidaemia in DKA is achieved by correcting the underlying pathophysiology with fluid replacement and insulin
Stridor
Stridor = sound on inspiration associated with airway narrowing; stridor at rest implies a reduction in airway diameter of >50%