vbid/9781461438663

Description

Intensive care medicine is one of the fastest growing services provided by hospitals and perhaps one of the most expensive.� Yet in response to the global financial crisis of the last few years, healthcare funding is slowing or decreasing throughout the world.� � How we manage health care resources in the intensive care unit (ICU) now and in a future that promises only greater cost constraints is the subject of this book, the third in an informal series of volumes providing a global perspective on difficult issues arising in the ICU.� � Taking 12 developed countries as their focus, leading experts provide a country-by-country analysis of current ICU resource allocation.� A second group of experts use the chapters as a departure point to analyze current ICU resource allocation at the level of the global medical village.� The process is repeated, but with an eye toward the future � first country by country, then at the global level � that takes into account initiatives and reforms now underway. � A fictional healthcare plan, the �Fair & Equitable Healthcare Plan,� is put forth to address weaknesses in existing approaches, and healthcare experts and ethicists are invited to respond to its often provocative provisions. � Itself structured as a dialogue, the book is an excellent way to start or to continue serious discussion about the allocation of ICU healthcare resources now and in the years ahead.�Typham this is the title: ICU Resource Allocation in the New Millennium Will We Say “No”?