Transfusion Patterns in All Patients Admitted to the Intensive Care Unit and in Those Who Die in Hospital: A Descriptive Analysis.

While it is known that the use of health care resources increases at the end of life in patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), the allocation of blood products at the end of life has not been described. The objective of this study was to describe overall transfusion patterns in the ICU, and specifically in patients who die in hospital. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of adult patients admitted to the ICU of a university-affiliated hospital, who were discharged or died between November 1, 2006 and June 30, 2012.

Hospital Resource Utilization and Patient Outcomes Associated with Respiratory Viral Testing in Hospitalized Patients.

Testing patients for respiratory viruses should guide isolation precautions and provide a rationale for antimicrobial drug therapies, but few studies have evaluated these assumptions. To determine the association between viral testing, patient outcomes, and care processes, we identified adults hospitalized with respiratory symptoms from 2004 through 2012 at a large, academic, tertiary hospital in Canada. Viral testing was performed in 11% (2,722/24,567) of hospital admissions and was not associated with reduced odds for death (odds ratio 0.

Changing trends in blood transfusion: an analysis of 244,013 hospitalizations.

Background: Identifying recipients of blood transfusion and the trends in transfusion are needed to properly identify and target clinical services in need of patient blood management strategies. We determined the proportion of admissions to each clinical service that received blood, the mean number of units utilized, and the 5-year trends in utilization.

Study Design And Methods: We used a large administrative database, a repository for three campuses of one university-affiliated hospital, and included all adults that were hospitalized from November 1, 2006, to June 2012.

One- and five-year risk of death and cardiovascular complications for hospitalized patients with hyperglycemia without diagnosed diabetes: An observational study.

Background: Hyperglycemia is recognized as an important threat to the health of patients, independent of diabetes status. However, no long-term follow-up study of patients with in-hospital elevated glucose without diabetes has been conducted.

Objective: To compare 1- and 5-year risk of death and cardiovascular (CV) complications in patients with a diagnosis of diabetes versus those without a diabetes diagnosis

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Influenza infection screening tools fail to accurately predict influenza status for patients during pandemic H1N1 influenza season.

Background: Following the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in 2003, hospitals have been mandated to use infection screening questionnaires to determine which patients have infectious respiratory illness and, therefore, require isolation precautions. Despite widespread use of symptom-based screening tools in Ontario, there are no data supporting the accuracy of these screening tools in hospitalized patients.

Objective: To measure the performance characteristics of infection screening tools used during the H1N1 influenza season.

The accuracy of using integrated electronic health care data to identify patients with undiagnosed diabetes mellitus.

Rationale, Aims And Objectives: Diabetes mellitus is a growing health and economic burden. Identification of patients with unrecognized diabetes, or those at high risk for diabetes, provides an opportunity for timely intervention. This study assessed the accuracy of using electronic health care data to identify patients with undiagnosed diabetes.