A randomized trial of nighttime physician staffing in an intensive care unit.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Increasing numbers of intensive care units (ICUs) are adopting the practice of nighttime intensivist staffing despite the lack of experimental evidence of its effectiveness.

Methods

We conducted a 1-year randomized trial in an academic medical ICU of the effects of nighttime staffing with in-hospital intensivists (intervention) as compared with nighttime coverage by daytime intensivists who were available for consultation by telephone (control). We randomly assigned blocks of 7 consecutive nights to the intervention or the control strategy. The primary outcome was patients' length of stay in the ICU. Secondary outcomes were patients' length of stay in the hospital, ICU and in-hospital mortality, discharge disposition, and rates of readmission to the ICU. For lengt

SUBMITTER: Kerlin MP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3732473 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature