{"title":"Intermediate Care Units in Internal Medicine.","authors":"Ciro Canetta, Silvia Accordino, Fabiola B Sozzi","doi":"10.1016/j.ejim.2025.03.033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejim.2025.03.033","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Intermediate Care Units (ImCU) have been historically described as an intermediate level of care between standard wards and intensive care units (ICU), and general medical ImCUs have evolved as specifically addressed to high care medical patients. The objective of this study is to explore designs, appropriateness criteria, and quality of care of general medical ImCUs.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>a comprehensive literature search was performed in electronic database (PubMed/Medline, Embase, Cochrane and Web of Science) up to July 30th 2024 and data about general medical ImCU denominations, settings, processes and outcomes were extracted.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>34 studies were included in systematic analyses, the more used nomenclature was ImCU (70.6 %), followed by High Dependency Unit (20.6 %). The median number of beds was 8 [4-11], the nurse-to-patients ratio 1:3.1, and internists involved in comanagement in 40.0 %. Either a step-up from standard wards or a step-down from ICUs role were reported, with a median of 50.8 % [26.2-71.0] of patients directly admitted from Emergency Departments. The main distinctive activities were continuous monitoring and non-invasive ventilation. The median ICU transfer rate was 8.0 % [5.6-12.3], while in-ImCU and in-hospital mortality were 6.2 % [3.6-8.3] and 14.0 % [8.7-19.1], respectively.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>general medical ImCUs are being increasingly recognized as the appropriate setting for high care medical patients but present to date a wide variability of formats. Activity-based admission criteria tailored on each hospital reality could be a process model for adequate patient flow, and quality of care key indicators should consider the functional general medical ImCU role in hospital macro-systems.</p>","PeriodicalId":50485,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Internal Medicine","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143789257","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Gianluca Azzellino, Ernesto Aitella, Mauro Passamonti, Lia Ginaldi, Massimo De Martinis
{"title":"Protected discharge and combined interventions: A viable path to reduce hospital readmissions.","authors":"Gianluca Azzellino, Ernesto Aitella, Mauro Passamonti, Lia Ginaldi, Massimo De Martinis","doi":"10.1016/j.ejim.2025.03.035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejim.2025.03.035","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50485,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Internal Medicine","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143781660","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Refining risk assessment for intra-abdominal infections in immunocompromised intensive care unit patients","authors":"Yinfang Wu , Qi Zhao","doi":"10.1016/j.ejim.2024.12.025","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ejim.2024.12.025","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50485,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Internal Medicine","volume":"134 ","pages":"Pages 138-139"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142899677","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ivânia Soares , Inês Pereira Amaral , Paulo Filipe
{"title":"A 73-year-old man with purpura and fever","authors":"Ivânia Soares , Inês Pereira Amaral , Paulo Filipe","doi":"10.1016/j.ejim.2025.01.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ejim.2025.01.006","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50485,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Internal Medicine","volume":"134 ","pages":"Pages 132-133"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143015570","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Outcomes and readmissions in octogenarians and nonagenarians undergoing catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation in the United States","authors":"Siddharth Agarwal , Usama Qamar , Charu Debnath","doi":"10.1016/j.ejim.2025.01.025","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ejim.2025.01.025","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50485,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Internal Medicine","volume":"134 ","pages":"Pages 134-137"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143076285","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fahmi Abu Ghalion, Mai Ofri, Victor Novack, Lena Novack
{"title":"Seasonality of diabetic ketoacidosis in hot climate","authors":"Fahmi Abu Ghalion, Mai Ofri, Victor Novack, Lena Novack","doi":"10.1016/j.ejim.2024.11.014","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ejim.2024.11.014","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50485,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Internal Medicine","volume":"134 ","pages":"Pages 152-153"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142752004","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}