The adult critical care setting requires complex clinical decisions to be made that have a dramatic impact on the lives of patients and their families. This textbook offers evidence-based case histories around shared decision making, providing practical advice to clinicians who are trying to navigate routine clinical scenarios in adult critical care. Early chapters explore the definition of the shared decision making process and practical steps that aid its implementation. The greater part of the book focuses on how shared decision making can be practiced in specific situations that are common in adult critical care, highlighting the relevant knowledge base necessary to manage each situation. Do-not-resuscitate and do-not-intubate orders, ECMO, and resolving conflicts regarding potentially inappropriate treatment are among the topics covered. An essential resource for healthcare professionals working in critical care and those looking for a framework for the use of shared decision making in this setting.

Sponsored by the Picker/Commonwealth Program for Patient-Centered Care In this comprehensive, research-based look at the experiences and needs of patients, the authors explore models of care that can make hospitalization more humane. Through the Patient's Eyes provides insights into why some hospitals are more patient-centered than others; how physicians can become more involved in patient-centered quality efforts; and how patient-centered quality can be integrated into health care policy, standards, and regulations. The authors show how, by bringing the patient's perspective to the design and delivery of health services, providers can improve their ability to meet patient's needs and enhance the quality of care.

Looking for a brief but authoritative resource to help you manage the types of complex cardiac, pulmonary, and neurological emergencies you encounter as a resident or attending emergency room physician? Look no further than Decision Making in Emergency Critical Care: An Evidence-Based Handbook. This portable guide to rational clinical decision-making in the challenging – and changing – world of emergency critical care provides in every chapter a streamlined review of a common problem in critical care medicine, along with evidence-based guidelines and summary tables of landmark literature. Features Prepare for effective critical care practice in the emergency room’s often chaotic and resource-limited environment with expert guidance from fellows and attending physicians in the fields of emergency medicine, pulmonary and critical care medicine, cardiology, gastroenterology, and neurocritical care. Master critical care fundamentals as experts guide you through the initial resuscitation and the continued management of critical care patients during their first 24 hours of intensive care. Confidently make sustained, data-driven decisions for the critically ill patient using expert information on everything from hemodynamic monitoring and critical care ultrasonography to sepsis and septic shock to the ED-ICU transfer of care.

Over the past decade health care systems around the world have placed increasing importance on the relationship between patient choice and clinical decision-making. In the years since the publication of the second edition of Shared Decision Making in Health Care, there have been significant new developments in the field, most notably in the US where 'Obamacare' puts shared decision making (SDM) at the centre of the 2009 Affordable Care Act. This new edition explores shared decision making by examining, from practical and theoretical perspectives, what should comprise an effective decision-making process. It also looks at the benefits and potential difficulties that arise when patients and clinicians share health care decisions. Written by leading experts from around the world and utilizing high quality evidence, the book provides an up-to-date reference with real-word context to the topics discussed, and in-depth coverage of the practicalities of implementing and teaching SDM. The breadth of information in Shared Decision Making in Health Care makes it the definitive source of expert knowledge for healthcare policy makers. As health care systems adapt to increasingly collaborative patient-clinician care frameworks, this will also prove a useful guide to SDM for clinicians of all disciplines.

For patients and their loved ones, no care decisions are more profound than those made near the end of life. Unfortunately, the experience of dying in the United States is often characterized by fragmented care, inadequate treatment of distressing symptoms, frequent transitions among care settings, and enormous care responsibilities for families. According to this report, the current health care system of rendering more intensive services than are necessary and desired by patients, and the lack of coordination among programs increases risks to patients and creates avoidable burdens on them and their families. Dying in America is a study of the current state of health care for persons of all ages who are nearing the end of life. Death is not a strictly medical event. Ideally, health care for those nearing the end of life harmonizes with social, psychological, and spiritual support. All people with advanced illnesses who may be approaching the end of life are entitled to access to high-quality, compassionate, evidence-based care, consistent with their wishes. Dying in America evaluates strategies to integrate care into a person- and family-centered, team-based framework, and makes recommendations to create a system that coordinates care and supports and respects the choices of patients and their families. The findings and recommendations of this report will address the needs of patients and their families and assist policy makers, clinicians and their educational and credentialing bodies, leaders of health care delivery and financing organizations, researchers, public and private funders, religious and community leaders, advocates of better care, journalists, and the public to provide the best care possible for people nearing the end of life.

Here’s the most clinically oriented critical care text focusing on the adult patient. In full-color and superbly illustrated with clinical photographs, imaging studies, and management algorithms, and with a broad multidisciplinary focus, this text will help you enhance your skills at any level of training. Stands alone as a clinically oriented comprehensive reference. Completely updated and authorship expanded to reflect the evolution in critical care practice. In color for the first time, with new color schematics and treatment algorithms for greater ease of reference. Utilizes key points lists at the end of chapter, to help you make decisions rapidly and easily. Delivers key references that list other useful resources for information. Includes these seven new chapters to keep you on the cutting edge of your specialty: Assessment of Cardiac Filling and Blood Flow Mechanical Ventilation of Obstructive Airways Disease Mechanical Ventilation of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Severe Sepsis and Multiple Organ Dysfunction Stroke Delirium, Psychosis, Sleep and Depression in the ICU ICU Education