Severe acute maternal morbidity trends in Victoria, 2001-2017.

Background: The incidence of severe acute maternal morbidity (SAMM) is one method of measuring the complexity of maternal health and monitoring maternal outcomes. Monitoring trends may provide a quantitative method for assessing health care at local, regional, or jurisdictional levels and identify issues for further investigation.

Aims: Identify temporal trends for SAMM event rates and maternal outcomes over 17 years in the state of Victoria, Australia.

Predictors of acute hospital mortality and length of stay in patients with new-onset atrial fibrillation: a first-hand experience from a medical emergency team response provider.

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) occurs frequently following cardiothoracic surgery and treatment decisions are informed by evidence-based clinical guidelines. Outside this setting there are few data to guide clinical management.

Aim: To describe the characteristics, management and outcomes of hospitalised adult patients with new-onset AF.

Risk factors for mortality in patients admitted to intensive care units with pneumonia.

Background: Despite the high mortality in patients with pneumonia admitted to an ICU, data on risk factors for death remain limited.

Methods: In this secondary analysis of PROTECT (Prophylaxis for Thromboembolism in Critical Care Trial), we focused on the patients admitted to ICU with a primary diagnosis of pneumonia. The primary outcome for this study was 90-day hospital mortality and the secondary outcome was 90-day ICU mortality.

Inappropriate continuation of stress ulcer prophylaxis beyond the intensive care setting.

Objective: To determine how frequently stress ulcer prophylaxis (SUP) medications prescribed in the intensive care unit are inappropriately continued on the ward and on hospital discharge.

Design: Retrospective cohort study; chart review.

Setting: Two Australian ICUs: one tertiary centre and one metropolitan centre.

Treatment goals: health care improvement through setting and measuring patient-centred outcomes.

Objective: To determine how frequently stress ulcer prophylaxis (SUP) medications prescribed in the intensive care unit are inappropriately continued on the ward and on hospital discharge.

Design: Retrospective cohort study; chart review.

Setting: Two Australian ICUs: one tertiary centre and one metropolitan centre.

Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia in medical surgical critical illness.

Background: In a recent multicenter randomized trial comparing unfractionated heparin (UFH) with low-molecular-weight heparin (dalteparin) for thromboprophylaxis in 3,746 critically ill patients, 17 patients (0.5%) developed heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) based on serotonin-release assay-positive (SRA+) status. A trend to a lower frequency of HIT with dalteparin vs UFH was observed in the intention-to-treat analysis (five vs 12 patients, P = .

Obstetric admissions to an integrated general intensive care unit in a quaternary maternity facility.

Background: Monash Medical Centre (MMC) is a university-affiliated tertiary referral hospital in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The hospital has a large obstetric service and is the only quarternary obstetric unit in Victoria. The intensive care unit (ICU) is a busy 21-bed general unit with a broad casemix.

Long-stay patients in Australian and New Zealand intensive care units: demographics and outcomes.

Aim And Methods: There is no consensus definition on what constitutes a long stay in the intensive care unit, and little published information on the demographic characteristics, resource usage or outcomes of long-stay patients. We used data from the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society Adult Patient Database to identify patients who had spent > 21 days in the ICU. We examined their resource usage, hospital type, diagnoses and outcomes, and trends in these characteristics over 5 years (2000-2004).