SCCM is performing maintenance on its websites. For the best browsing experience, please use Microsoft Edge or Safari. Those using Chrome or Firefox may experience access issues at this time.

Category: Quality and Patient Safety

Category Search

visual bubble
visual bubble
visual bubble
visual bubble

SCCM Pod-213 Implementing the Surviving Sepsis Campaign Guidelines

Jeffrey Guy, MD, MSc, MMHC, speaks with Christa A. Schorr, RN, MSN, FCCM, who is with us today to discuss implementing the Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) guidelines. Schorr offers suggestions and key points for implementing SSC protocols in the hospital, as well as tips to gain administrative support for implementation. Dr. Schorr is the Director of Databases for Quality Improvement and Research and Program Director of Critical Care Research Trials at Cooper Hospital University Medical Center in Camden, New Jersey. She was also an active member on the 2012 Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines.


SCCM Pod-201 CCM: New Glycemic Control Guidelines

Jeffrey Guy, MD, MSc, MMHC, speaks with Judith Jacobi, PharmD, FCCM, lead author on the new glycemic control guidelines from the Society of Critical Care Medicine's American College of Critical Care Medicine titled, “Guidelines for the Use of an Insulin Infusion for the Management of Hyperglycemia in Critically Ill Patients,” published in the December Critical Care Medicine. The task force provides suggestions for the structure of safe and effective use of insulin infusion therapy in patients requiring tight glycemic control. Jacobi is a critical care pharmacy specialist at Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana. She is also a past president of the Society of Critical Care Medicine.


SCCM Pod-198 CCM: Cost Savings and Quality Improvement

Michael Weinstein, MD, FACS, FCCP, speaks with Amay Parikh, MD, MBA, MS, lead author on an article published in the October Critical Care Medicine, “Quality Improvement and Cost Savings After Implementation of the Leapfrog Intensive Care Unit Physician Staffing Standard at a Community Teaching Hospital.” The article sought to determine whether improved outcomes in specific quality measures would result in an overall cost savings in patient care. Parikh specializes in nephrology and critical care at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, New Jersey.


SCCM Pod-180: Integrating Communication Bundles in the ICU

Former SCCM president Mitchell M. Levy, MD, FCCM, discusses communications bundles with podcast editor Jeffrey Guy, MD, MSc, MMHC. Levy was a presenter for the April 26th webcast titled “Integrating the Communication Bundles into your ICU,” which outlined strategies to reduce patient and family anxiety and to create a positive environment for the critically ill patient. Levy is a professor of medicine and a division chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Brown University School of Medicine in Providence, Rhode Island.


SCCM Pod-176 PCCM: Guidelines for Pediatric TBI

Margaret Parker, MD, FCCM, associated podcast editor, speaks with Patrick M. Kochanek, MD, MCCM, about the revised guidelines for acute medical management of severe traumatic brain injury in infants, children, and adolescents, published as a supplement to the January 2012 Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. Kochanek is a professor and vice chair in the Department of Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He is also the editor-in-chief of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine.


SCCM Pod-171 CCM: National Trends for Subdural Hematoma

Jennifer A. Frontera, MD, discusses national trends in the prevalence, cost and discharge disposition of patients after subdural hematoma. After reviewing patient data from 1998 to 2007 she published her analysis of the impact of this under-studied disease in Critical Care Medicine. Frontera is an assistant professor in neurosurgery and neurology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and she is the director of the neuroscience ICU at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.


SCCM Pod-151 Symptoms Experienced by ICU Patients at Risk of Dying

Kathleen A. Puntillo, RN, DNSc, is the lead author of an article published in the November 2010 Critical Care Medicine titled, “Symptoms Experienced by Intensive Care Unit Patients at High Risk of Dying.”

The study provides a detailed assessment of the symptom experiences of intensive care unit patients at risk of dying and evaluates the relationship between delirium and patients’ symptom reports.

Puntillo is a professor of nursing at the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing.


SCCM Pod-133 CCM: Human Factors to Medication and Patient Safety in the ICU

Matthew C. Scanlon, MD, discuses is article, “Value of Human Factors to Medication and Patient Safety in the Intensive Care Unit,” published as part of a supplement to the June 2010 issue of Critical Care Medicine. He discusses how human factors provide a framework for understanding safety failures in critical care settings. Scanlon is an associate professor for the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and a physician at the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, specializing in pediatrics and pediatric critical care.


SCCM Pod-94 Increased Mortality of Ventilated Patients with Endotracheal Pseudomonas Aeruginosa

Jeanine Wiener-Kronish, MD, discusses an article published in the September 2008 issue of Critical Care Medicine, titled "Increased Mortality of Ventilated Patients with Endotracheal Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Without Clinical Signs of Infection." Dr. Wiener-Kronish is a professor of research and teaching in anaesthetics and anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School, and Chief of Anesthesia, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.


SCCM Pod-91 PCCM: Outcomes and Admissions in the PICU

Folafoluwa O. Odetola, MD, MPH, discusses an article published in the January 2008 issue of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, "Do Outcomes Vary According to the Source of Admission to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit?" Dr. Odetola is from Mott Children's Hospital, University of Michigan Health System, and from the Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor.


SCCM Pod-90 New End-of-Life Guidelines

Robert D. Truog, MD, MA, discusses new guidelines published in the March 2008 issue of Critical Care Medicine, "Recommendations for End-of-Life Care in the ICU." Dr. Truog is professor of medical ethics and anesthesia (pediatrics) at Harvard Medical School and senior associate in critical care medicine at Children's Hospital Boston in Massachusetts.


Research

A central component of the Society's mission is the support of quality-based improvement initiatives and the support of multiprofessional research at all levels.


Concise Critical Appraisal: Impact of a Machine Learning Early Warning Score on Hospital Mortality

Common causes of death in hospitals, such as sepsis and respiratory failure, are treatable and benefit from early intervention. Machine learning algorithms or early warning scores can be used for early identification and recognition to potentially help accelerate interventions and limit morbidity and mortality. This Concise Critical Appraisal explores an article published in Critical Care Medicine that looked at the impact of one of these early warning scores—electronic cardiac arrest risk triage (eCART)—on mortality for elevated-risk adult inpatients.


Early Mobilization During Mechanical Ventilation: Pain With No Gain

Early active mobilization has been shown to mitigate ICU-acquired weakness, reduce disability and, most importantly, reduce mortality. This Concise Critical Appraisal describes a recent article published in the New England Journal of Medicine about mobilization during mechanical ventilation that reevaluates the effects of sedation minimization and daily physiotherapy on serious adverse events and mortality at 180 days.


Concise Critical Appraisal: Artificial Intelligence and the ICU Patient

With the advancement and increasing popularity of artificial intelligence (AI) systems, researchers have begun studying how to apply the technical capabilities of AI to the intensive care unit (ICU). This Concise Critical Appraisal explores how ICU AI systems could replace traditional monitoring systems and clinical risk assessment tools with computers that use multidimensional and multidomain data patterns to enhance patient care, predict outcomes, and seamlessly extract and interpret clinical information.


Discovery VIRUS Registry Outcomes and STOP-VIRUS ICU Learning Collaborative

The first outcomes of VIRUS were recently published in Critical Care Medicine. More than 20 manuscripts are being prepared for publication during the next several months. Additionally, sites have been invited to submit ancillary study ideas drawing on registry data. Of the 150 proposed, more than 60 have been approved.
 
Join the registry today and contribute to this important data collection.


Concise Critical Appraisal: Development of the CCEeXAM

Bedside echocardiography has become increasingly widespread among physicians caring for critically ill patients. The Examination of Special Competence in Critical Care Echocardiography (CCEeXAM) was administered for the first time in 2019 to 524 physicians from multiple specialties. The examination was designed for physicians to demonstrate an objective competence and obtain certification in advanced critical care echocardiography (CCE).


ICU Liberation: How Pharmacists Can Champion Change and Improve Outcomes

Joanna L. Stollings, PharmD, FCCP, FCCM, and Devin N. Holden, PharmD, BCPS, BCCCP, summarize how pharmacists can play an important role in the development and implementation of each element of the ICU Liberation Bundle (A-F).


SCCM Pod-439 The Association Between Antibiotic Delay and Hospital Mortality

Rapid delivery of antibiotics is a cornerstone of sepsis therapy, although time targets for specific components of antibiotic delivery are unknown. Host Ludwig H. Lin, MD, is joined by Stephanie Parks Taylor, MD, to discuss the significance of time lead for suspected sepsis patients, how to use a generous time window wisely, and new and reconfigured technologies opportunities (Taylor SP, et al. Crit Care Med. 2021 May;49:741-747). 

Dr. Taylor is an associate professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at Atrium Health’s Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. This podcast is sponsored by Biofire


SCCM Pod-438 Patient-Ventilator Dyssynchronies and Their Mechanisms

The prevalence and consequences of dyssynchronies are largely underestimated due to frequent lack of monitoring. Dedicated software solutions are needed to continuously and automatically detect dyssynchronies, which will allow for both clinical research and application aimed at determining the effects of dyssynchronies and their incidence among critically ill patients. Host Pamela M. Peeke, MD, MPH, FACP, FACSM, is joined by Laurent Brochard, MD, to explore the different mechanisms of the various patient-ventilator dyssynchronies and how to detect these dyssynchronies and evaluate their possible impact on patient-centered outcomes. Dr. Brochard is inter-department division director of critical care at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This podcast is supported by an unrestricted education grant from Medtronic.