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There continues to be a huge discrepancy between the number of individuals on the national waiting list for vital organ transplant and the number of donor organs available.
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Infection prevention is a priority area of focus for critical care units worldwide.
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In this issue: Results from a Phase 3 study of dabigatran, intensive lipid-lowering in CVD, H1N1 vaccine dosing and efficacy, and FDA Actions.
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In an attempt to reproduce the situation in which a covering physician is called urgently to a patient's bedside because of a ventilator-related problem, this laboratory study sought to determine how readily intensivists could operate new-generation ICU mechanical ventilators with which they were not personally familiar.
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This large-scale clinical trial of exogenous surfactant administration in adult patients with acute lung injury (ALI) or acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) used internationally accepted diagnostic criteria and the ARDS Net lung-protective ventilation protocol in all patients.
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Generally, families of critical care patients are not actively involved in patient care in a consistent or meaningful way.
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As of January 2010, The Joint Commission has incorporated into its Quality Check web site (www.qualitycheck.org/consumer/searchQCR.aspx) the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS') 30-day readmission rates for heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia Medicare patients.
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Although the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) made several minor modifications to the Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) for 2010 with impact on the emergency department, none result in a significant change in ED facility coding. However, there are references to several planned projects required to provide data to be used in future reporting and/or rate changes.
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A new process for managing radiological discrepancies in the ED at Catawba Valley Medical Center in Hickory, NC, has significantly improved the efficiency with which notifications are received and acted upon.