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01-11-2015 | Editorial

ICUs after surgery, mortality, and the Will Rogers effect

Authors: Michael D. Howell, Jennifer P. Stevens

Published in: Intensive Care Medicine | Issue 11/2015

Excerpt

In a recent article in Intensive Care Medicine, Gillies and colleagues describe and seek to explain the substantial variation in patient survival following surgery after admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) [1]. At this point, we consider it essentially settled science that health care delivery varies [2, 3], that surgical care varies [4], and that even care within a single payer health care system varies. Gillies et al.’s work echoes this theme. They found a 10 % variation in mortality across the UK among patients admitted to critical care directly from surgery, not explained by measured patient-level characteristics. …

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Title: ICUs after surgery, mortality, and the Will Rogers effect
Authors: Michael D. Howell
Jennifer P. Stevens
Publication date: 01-11-2015
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in: Intensive Care Medicine / Issue 11/2015
Print ISSN: 0342-4642
Electronic ISSN: 1432-1238
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00134-015-4007-7

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