OBJECTIVE To compare usage patterns and outcomes of a nurse practitioner-staffed medical ICU and a resident-staffed physician medical ICU. DESIGN Retrospective chart review of 1,157 medical ICU admissions from March 2012 to February 2013. SETTING Large urban academic university hospital. SUBJECTS One thousand one hundred fifty-seven consecutive medical ICU admissions including 221 nurse p...

The international data have indicated a growing trend of alcohol use worldwide during recent years. Although alcohol use is against cultural norms and religious law in Iran, anecdotal reports from substance abuse treatment providers show that there is demand for alcohol treatment in the country. A recent national report also documented alcohol use disorders in Iran. Development and implementati...

background and objectives: patients at intensive-care-unit (icu) are at risk of acquiring nosocomial infections which contributes to higher rates. approximately 25% of all hospital infections and 90% of outbreaks occur in icus. multi-resistant gram-negative rods are important pathogens in icus, causing high rate of mortality. the purpose of this study was to investigate the antimicrobial resist...

background: resistance to antimicrobial agents including aminoglycosides (ags) is a great concern that is mainly related to inappropriate use. since there were not adequate data regarding how rationally ags are being prescribed in our critically ill patients, this study was conducted to determine the main issues in the area of appropriate use of this antibiotic class.   methods: one hundred pat...

INTRODUCTION Intensive care unit (ICU) patients and family members repeatedly note accurate and timely communication from health care providers to be crucial to high-quality ICU care. Practice guidelines recommend improving communication. However, few data, particularly in surgical ICUs, exist on health care provider opinions regarding whether communication is effective. METHODS To evaluate I...

In a study conducted by WHO in 55 hospitals situated in 14 countries of the four regions of Eu-rope, East Mediterranean, Southeast Asia, and Western Pacific, it was found that, on the average, 8.7% of hospitalized patients were afflicted with hospital-acquired infections. This study also revealed that more than 4.1 million people in the world suffer from hospital infections (1). The rate among ...

multidrug resistant (mdr) bacteria are spread through the world which causes nosocomial infections, especially in intensive care unit (icu). this study aimed to investigate resistance pattern of pseudomonas aeruginosa and enterobacter cloacae isolated from patients in icu. during 2011-2012, 30 isolates for each p. aeruginosa and e. cloacae were collected from patients who acquired nosocomial in...

conclusions based on the findings, the mortality rate was 22.9% among poisoned patients with an elevated serum lactate level. we can conclude that mortality is associated with toxicants, but not the occurrence of vap; in fact, vap scenarios do not elevate serum lactate level. background lactate level is known to increase among the majority of patients with toxicity. this study aimed to determin...