Abstract

'Critical Care: Standards, Audit and Ethics' brings together the important issues which are topical and relevant to the dilemmas faced by all concerned with the management of critically ill patients. The standards of resources that should be available to deliver this care are discussed, including transport of the critically ill, the design of intensive care units, technical support, and the staffing and training within related disciplines, viewed from a world wide perspective. The authors review and debate: current theories and practice in audit to quantify critical illnesses; the selection of patients; the results of critical care and the quality of survival as well as the cost benefits; the ethics of establishing health care priorities; withholding and withdrawing life-support; the ethical issues of organ donation; clinical research, medico-legal, moral and religious aspects of critical care. This is the first book to look in depth at the principles and practice of the organisational aspects of intensive care delivery and will be of value to all members of the multidisciplinary Intensive Care team: physicians, nurses, trainees and managers. Every Intensive Care Unit should have a copy.