Successful implementation of a short message service (SMS) as intensive care to family communication tool.

Background: Regularly informing families of the condition of their relative can be difficult. Text messaging via mobile telephones may achieve such communication effectively.

Objective: To test the hypotheses that we could efficiently deliver real-time short message service (SMS) updates to families and that these SMS updates would be accepted and welcomed.

Modeling a Large-Scale Historic Aquifer Test: Insight into the Hydrogeology of a Regional Fault Zone.

Faults can act as flow barriers or conduits to groundwater flow by introducing heterogeneity in permeability. We examine the hydrogeology of the Sandwich Fault Zone, a 137 km long zone of high-angle faults in northern Illinois, using a large-scale historic aquifer test. The fault zone is poorly understood at depth due to the majority of the faults being buried by glacial deposits and its near-vertical orientation which limits geologic sampling across faults.

A "Code ICU" expedited review of critically ill patients is associated with reduced emergency department length of stay and duration of mechanical ventilation.

Purpose: To examine the effect of a system of expedited review of critically ill patients in the Emergency Department (ED) on ED length of stay (LOS) and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) outcomes.

Materials And Methods: Retrospective cohort study at a tertiary hospital comparing two 12-month periods before and after implementation of a 'Code ICU' system of expedited review of critically ill patients in the ED. All adult ED to ICU admissions were included.