Evaluation of clinical practice guidelines on outcome of infection in patients in the surgical intensive care unit.

Objective: In this study, clinical practice guidelines were developed by a multidisciplinary team for patients with infections admitted to a surgical intensive care unit (ICU).

Design: A 51-day baseline audit period (Phase I) in a 20-bed (private rooms) surgical ICU was compared with a 34-day period in the same unit after implementation of the guidelines (Phase II).

Patients: Phase I included 182 patients (670 patient days), and Phase II included 139 patients (427 patient days).