Mortality and readmission rates of patients discharged in-hours and out-of-hours from a British ICU over a 3-year period.

Excess in-hospital mortality following out-of-hours ICU discharge has been reported worldwide. From preliminary data, we observed that magnitude of difference may be reduced when patients discharged for end-of-life care or organ donation are excluded. We speculated that these patients may be disproportionately discharged out-of-hours, biasing results.

Audit of UK ventilator care bundles and discussion of subglottic secretion drainage.

Aims: The UK Department of Health (2012) recommends a ventilator care bundle in the form of a high impact intervention to reduce the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia. The aims of this project were to audit compliance with individual components of this care bundle in the UK.

Design: The first survey directly addressed compliance with each component of the recommended ventilator care bundle.