Patients discharging the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) still need a high level of care because of the severity of their disease. In fact, they have an increased risk for readmission to the ICU. Moreover, urgent readmissions to the ICU are a widely used tool to assessment the quality of Health Care services. Although a lot of efforts are being made to reduce them, these adverse events still exist. It is noted that readmitted patients to the ICU have a much poorer prognosis, as its mortality rates are six times higher, and also have eleven times higher probability to die in hospital compared with other hospitalized patients.
Continue readingThe concept of sustainability in anesthesia, referred as "Environmentally Sustainable Anesthesia", can be characterized by the safe perioperative management of equipment and medicines by the anesthesiologist, without harming the environment. Τhe term "Green Anesthesia" also relates to the priority to environmental sustainability even if the economic factor comes second, but in essence, sustainable and green anesthesia refer to common actions and practices. The problem of environmental impacts from anesthesiology practice arises when managing chemical agents to ensure the proper conditions for safe anesthesia administration, by pharmaceutical means and special techniques. The main problem is the Inhaled agents (Ν2Ο and volatile anesthetics), as part of them is released into the atmosphere by forming Wasted Anesthetic Gases (WAGs). It begins in the operating room and ends into the atmosphere. Atmosphere is essential for life on earth.
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