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From Surveillance to Prevention

  • Chapter
Intensive and Critical Care Medicine

Abstract

Healthcare-associated infections (HCAI) are preventable errors. In 1999 the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released its landmark report “To err is human.” IOM estimated that as many as 100,000 patients died from medical errors in the USA, with a cost of over $50 billion/year [1]. The improvement of the quality of healthcare is a major concern for intensive care professionals because patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) are thought to be particularly at risk for errors due to the complexity of the patients, interdependence of the practitioners, and dependence on team functioning. Ensuring patients’ safety during their hospital stay requires mechanisms to determine the incidence of adverse effects. Published reports estimate that 1.7 errors per patient per day occur in the ICU and 148,000 life-threatening errors would occur annually in teaching hospital ICUs in the USA [2].

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Servicio de Medicina Intensiva, Hospital Vall d’Hebrón, Barcelona, Spain

    M. Palomar Martínez

  2. Servicio de Medicina Intensiva, Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, Spain

    F. Alvarez Lerma

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  1. M. Palomar Martínez
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  2. F. Alvarez Lerma
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department and School of Anesthesia and Intensive Care, Catania School of Medicine and University-Hospital, Catania, Italy

    Antonino Gullo

  2. Department of Anesthesiology, Keck Medical School, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Philip D. Lumb

  3. Department of Critical Care Medicine, Hospital Centro Medico de Caracas, Caracas, Venezuela

    José Besso

  4. World Federation of Critical Care Nurses C/-Nursing Administration, Gold Coast Health, Southport, Queensland, Australia

    Ged F. Williams

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© 2009 Springer-Verlag Italia

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Martínez, M.P., Lerma, F.A. (2009). From Surveillance to Prevention. In: Gullo, A., Lumb, P.D., Besso, J., Williams, G.F. (eds) Intensive and Critical Care Medicine. Springer, Milano. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-1436-7_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-1436-7_19

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Milano

  • Print ISBN: 978-88-470-1435-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-88-470-1436-7

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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