Effects of Staffing with Intensivists in a Surgical Intensive Care Unit of a Teaching Hospital

• Main Authors: Hsien-Hua, 廖憲華
• Other Authors: Ming-Chih Chou
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/09323503111077048179

碩士 === 中山醫學大學 === 醫學研究所 === 94 === The intensive care unit is a high cost hospital unit. Intensive care encompasses only about 10% of all hospital beds in the United States, but 34% of total medical resources, approximately 1% of the US gross domestic product is consumed in the care of intensive care unit patients. Intensive care units have save a lot of critically ill patients’ lives, but the resources we use keeps increasing. It has become a public concern as to how to use these medical resources efficiently. Many studies have suggested better alternatives and a more efficient utilization of resources by staffing intensive care units with critical care physicians (intensivists), which has reduced ICU stay and resource utilization. This study collected data from 1650 patients, retrospectively from a surgical intensive care unit at a teaching hospital from July, 2002 to June, 2004 to determine whether the presence of an on-site, organized, intensivist critical care service improved care and decreased resource utilization. We collected data from 1650 patients with 585 females and 1065 males and an average age of 55.80±0.49 years. An independent sample t-test and a one way ANOVA test were used to compare the differences between an ICU stay 1 year before and 1 year after intensivist staffing in July 2003. A Chi-square test was used to analyze the association of mortality. The results revealed a reduction of ICU stay after intensivist staffing, but there was no significant difference in the mortality rate.