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We wished to investigate whether intensive care represents good value for money to the National Health Service in the UK using cost-effectiveness analysis. We developed a cost-effectiveness model using secondary data sources to estimate the incremental cost per quality adjusted life year gained of treatment in intensive care vs non-intensive care treatment in adults. Estimates of hospital mortality with and without intensive care were obtained from seven published studies and from
data published by the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre. Quality of life estimates were obtained from a literature review and NHS reference costs were used. Relative to non-intensive care treatment, the incremental cost per quality adjusted life year gained of treatment in intensive care is £7010. This figure is sensitive to the mortality risk reduction associated with intensive care. Despite the high daily cost of intensive care, its cost-effectiveness is excellent and compares favourably with other commonly used health interventions. Our findings suggest that adult intensive care represents good value for money.

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DALLAS, Oct. 5, 2020 -- Having a spouse in a hospital's intensive care unit (ICU) may make a person more likely to have a heart attack or cardiac-related hospitalization themselves within a few weeks of the ICU admission, according to new research published today in the American Heart Association's flagship journal Circulation.

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The THRIVE Peer Support Collaborative is a worldwide partnership between survivors, clinicians, hospitals and SCCM to learn how to create stable, useful in-person support groups.

Some of the Collaborative member sites may have support groups available to those in their geographical areas.

To learn more about these sites, contact support@THRIVE.org.

If you don't see a site in your area, email and tell us a little about yourself. Even if we do not yet have a group in your area, your story can help us identify where we should go next or you may join a virtual support network.

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Critical illness is associated with high rates of significant, negative psychologic and psychiatric sequelae that are associated commonly with post-intensive care syndrome (PICS). PICS refers to the cognitive, physical, and psychologic impairments that many patients experience after an ICU admission.The primary mental health impairments that critical illness survivors experience are long-term cognitive impairments, depression (approximately 30% of survivors), anxiety (up to approximately 70%), and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (10%-50%). Delirium during critical illness, sometimes referred to as “ICU psychosis,” is also common and has been associated with PTSD.

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The National Maternity and Perinatal Audit (NMPA) is a national audit of the NHS maternity services across England, Scotland and Wales, commissioned in July 2016 by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) on behalf of NHS England, the Welsh Government and the Health Department of the Scottish Government. The NMPA is led by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) in partnership with the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).
The overarching objective of the NMPA is to produce high-quality information about NHS maternity and neonatal services that can be used by providers,commissioners and users of the services to benchmark against national standards and recommendations where these exist, and to identify good practice and areas for improvement in the care of women and babies.
This report focuses on maternal admissions to intensive care in England, Wales and Scotland. The NMPA, and the data it holds, offers a unique opportunity to link maternity data, which contain information about the mother, her pregnancy and her baby, to data from national data sets for intensive care admissions.
The purpose of this report is to describe the feasibility of linking the NMPA’s maternity data to intensive care data and to evaluate the suitability of rates of maternal admission to intensive care as an indicator of care quality. It also describes the demographics of women admitted to intensive care and the reasons for admission.

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The number of Americans hospitalized with the virus is increasing again, reaching 41,000 late last week, many with a circle of loved ones holding vigil in their minds, even if they can’t sit at the bedside. A decade ago, critical care clinicians coined the term post-intensive care syndrome, or PICS. It describes the muscle weakness, cognitive changes, anxiety and other physical and mental symptoms that some ICU patients cope with after leaving the hospital. Those complications are fallout from the medications, immobility and other possible components of being critically ill. Now they worry that some family members of critically ill COVID patients may develop a related syndrome, PICS-Family.

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CAESAR study may assist clinicians and researchers in developing better strategies to assist the relatives of dying ICU patients. This large, prospective study evaluated the perspectives of relatives of dying patients in the ICU. Extensive work was done to establish a simple tool with which to assess the experience of relatives of the dying, which was then correlated with subsequent psychological distress.

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This video series and accompanying educational materials are intended to facilitate discussion within interprofessional teams around communication and collaboration in the intensive care unit (ICU), especially as it pertains to the elements of the ABCCEF bundle. The ABCDEF bundle is a set of interconnected and interdependent evidence-based guideline-recommended interventions that includes the following elements:
- Assess, Prevent, and Manage Pain
- Both Spontaneous Awakening Trials and Spontaneous Breathing Trials
- Choice of Analgesia and Sedation
- Delirium: Assess, Prevent and Manage
- Early Mobility and Exercise
- Family Engagement and Empowerment

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Delirium is one of the most common behavioral manifestations of acute brain dysfunction in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and is a strong predictor of worse outcome. Routine monitoring for delirium is recommended for all ICU patients using validated tools (e.g., CAM-ICU, ICDSC). In delirious patients, a search for all reversible precipitants is the first line of action and pharmacological treatment should be considered when all causes have been ruled out, and not contraindicated.
Long-term morbidity, in the forms of cognitive, physical and psychological impairments, has significant consequences for survivors of critical illness and for their caregivers. ICU patients may develop PTSD anchored to their critical illness experience, with ICU-related PTSD incidence rates of 10%. Using ICU diaries during a critical illness may minimize the occurrence of future ICU-related PTSD.

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Wang et al.’s review of the Post-Intensive Care Syndrome (PICS) accomplishes three goals:1) it describes PICS as an enormous public health problem with far-reaching consequences; 2) it summarizes gaps in knowledge about functional impairments in PICS; and 3) it envisions the role of geriatric psychiatry in clinical care and research to improve patient and family outcomes in PICS.

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Ill health affects people in different ways. As you have been unwell it may take some time to feel your normal self again. The length of time this takes will depend on the illness you have had; how long you have been ill for; how much weight you may have lost and other factors individual to you. Many people experience both physical and emotional changes, while others experience very little. Research shows that because of a lack of memory of the illness while in intensive care, patients find it difficult to understand why it takes so long to return to normal.
This booklet aims to give you information about what to expect following a period of critical illness and some advice on how to help your recovery and rehabilitation both in hospital and when you go home.

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Millions of patients are admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) each year, one third of whom need a machine to help them breathe (ventilator). These critically ill patients may develop health problems related to their illness, injury, ventilator or other treatments. Such problems cannot be totally prevented and can continue after the patient leaves the hospital. Delirium, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and sepsis increase the chances of these problems occurring. They, too, may not always be prevented. If you are an ICU patient or family member, this guide helps you understand the health problems known as post-intensive care syndrome, or PICS, so you know what to look for when you return home. It also includes tips on how to minimize PICS. Many people develop PICS, and help is available. You will have the best chance of recovery if you explain your health problems to your primary care doctor, who can refer you to the specialists you need.