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Biomedical subjects

D J Cullen

Publications and source records attributed to D J Cullen.

104 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
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Administrative guidelines for response to an adverse anesthesia event. The Risk Management Committee of the Harvard Medical School's Department of Anaesthesia.

The Risk Management Committee of the Harvard Medical School's Department of Anaesthesia developed a set of guidelines recommending administrative actions that should be taken immediately following an adverse anesthesia event. The guidelines are intended to limit patient injury from a specific event associated with anesthesia and to ensure that the causes of the event are identified to prevent recurrence. The guidelines direct the primary anesthetist to concentrate on continuing care but quickly notify someone in a leadership position, who would become the "incident supervisor." The incident supervisor would be knowledgeable of the details of the protocol and direct activities for ensuring appropriate medical care, sequestration of equipment, documentation of information, and contact of other appropriate administrative personnel. Experience with the guidelines has shown that they can be effective if applied but that it is difficult to do that consistently in our large medical centers.

Anesthesia↗
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Guidelines for sedation by nonanesthesiologists during diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. The Risk Management Committee of the Department of Anaesthesia of Harvard Medical School.

The increasing use of sedation to enhance patient comfort during diagnostic and therapeutic procedures has been noted by the Joint Commission of Accredited Healthcare Organizations, specialty societies, and the public. Although anesthesiologists, by virtue of training and experience, possess unique qualifications to provide such sedation services, their availability remains somewhat limited by primary commitments to the operating room, intensive care unit, or pain service. The Risk Management Committee of the Department of Anaesthesia of Harvard Medical School has made specific recommendations to the Harvard-affiliated hospitals for anesthesiologists who participate in institutional-level committees in setting guidelines for such services when they are provided by nonanesthesiologists. Specific consideration is given to facilities, backup emergency services, equipment, education and training, issues of informed consent, documentation, and release of patients from medical care. These recommendations emphasize the collaboration of the department of anesthesia and other departments that provide sedation services in formulating policies and procedures that reflect values intrinsic to the practice of anesthesiology.

Anesthesia↗
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Indicators of intensive care in critically ill patients.

To define severity of illness objectively and to justify further the need for intensive care, we have analyzed measurable objective data points (indicators) in 226 consecutive critically ill Class IV patients. The indicators include: (1) Pao2 (Fio2, 1.0), (2) platelet count, (3) cardiac index, (4) BUN, 5) creatinine, (6) acute renal failure, (7) peritoneal or hemodialysis, (8) continuous infusion of antiarrhythmia therapy, (9) base deficit greater than 10mEq/liter, (10) state of consciousness, and (11) unexpected cardiac arrest. Most indicators were significantly worse in patients who ultimately died within one year than in patients who survived with a successful recovery. An indicator profile could be derived for each disease process category, since different indicators applied to different diseases. The indicators were not markedly affected by age. Standard discriminate analysis predicted a group of patients who would not survive and documented that acute renal failure was a primary predictor of death.

Acid-Base Imbalance↗
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Spontaneous recovery from nondepolarizing neuromuscular blockade: correlation between clinical and evoked responses.

The effects of nondepolarizing muscle relaxants were allowed to wear off spontaneously in 10 ASA class III and IV patients following major surgery. Neuromuscular and respiratory function were followed by clinical testing and by evoked muscle responses using a train of 4 (TOF) supramaximal stimuli. At a TOF of 70 percent (range 62 to 78%), all patients sustained eye-opening, hand-grasp, and tongue-protrusion, while 9/10 sustained head-lift. Vital capacity (VC) averaged 17 ml/kg when the TOF reached 70 percent. The increase in VC correlated with the increase in TOF (r = 0.88). There was no correlation between inspiratory force (IF) and TOF, but all patients achieved an IF equal to or greater than -22 cm H2O at 70 percent. Thus, TOF correlates well with clinical signs of neuromuscular and respiratory recovery in this group of patients and complements earlier studies in healthy anesthetized patients and nonmedicated volunteers.

Electric Stimulation↗
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Standards for patient monitoring during anesthesia at Harvard Medical School.

As part of a major patient safety/risk management effort, the Department of Anaesthesia of Harvard Medical School, Boston, has devised specific, detailed, mandatory standards for minimal patient monitoring during anesthesia at its nine component teaching hospitals. Such standards have not previously existed, and resistance to the concept was anticipated but not seen. The standards are technically achievable in all settings and affordable in terms of effort and cost. Early detection of untoward trends or events during anesthesia will result in prevention or mitigation of patient injury; this, in turn, may also help counter the explosive increases in anesthesia-related malpractice actions, settlements, judgments, and insurance premiums. The committee process used is applicable to the promulgation of standards of practice for all medical specialties and any organized group of medical practitioners.

Anesthesia↗
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The costs of adverse drug events in hospitalized patients. Adverse Drug Events Prevention Study Group.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the additional resource utilization associated with an adverse drug event (ADE). DESIGN: Nested case-control study within a prospective cohort study. PARTICIPANTS: The cohort included 4108 admissions to a stratified random sample of 11 medical and surgical units in 2 tertiary-care hospitals over a 6-month period. Cases were patients with an ADE, and the control for each case was the patient on the same unit as the case with the most similar pre-event length of stay. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Postevent length of stay and total costs. METHODS: Incidents were detected by self-report stimulated by nurses and pharmacists and by daily chart review, and were classified as to whether they represented ADEs. Information on length of stay and charges was obtained from billing data, and costs were estimated by multiplying components of charges times hospital-specific ratios of costs to charges. RESULTS: During the study period, there were 247 ADEs among 207 admissions. After outliers and multiple episodes were excluded, there were 190 ADEs, of which 60 were preventable. In paired regression analyses adjusting for multiple factors, including severity, comorbidity, and case mix, the additional length of stay associated with an ADE was 2.2 days (P=.04), and the increase in cost associated with an ADE was $3244 (P=.04). For preventable ADEs, the increases were 4.6 days in length of stay (P=.03) and $5857 in total cost (P=.07). After adjusting for our sampling strategy, the estimated postevent costs attributable to an ADE were $2595 for all ADEs and $4685 for preventable ADEs. Based on these costs and data about the incidence of ADEs, we estimate that the annual costs attributable to all ADEs and preventable ADEs for a 700-bed teaching hospital are $5.6 million and $2.8 million, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The substantial costs of ADEs to hospitals justify investment in efforts to prevent these events. Moreover, these estimates are conservative because they do not include the costs of injuries to patients or malpractice costs.

Boston↗