These are people whose health care expenses are usually over $50,000 a year because of a cancer, or heart disease, or mix of complex illnesses that are partly behaviorally related.
This might be explained by differences in case mix, severity of illness and length of ICU stay, as well as effects of previous antibiotic treatment on the patients' microflora [ 25, 28, 29].
Third, although we studied a large cohort of critically ill patients, and also the case-mix, severity of illness, and in-hospital survival of this cohort is very similar to many other ICUs in Australia [38], validation of this model by other ICUs that have access to data linkage is essential to assess its generalizability.
Cyclospora infections have sickened more than 400 people in 16 states, but the agency said it was working to determine whether the salad mix was the source of illnesses in the other 14 states.
In North Hills, interviews and information from law enforcement suggest "a long-brewing mix of drugs, mental illness, homophobia and extreme family dysfunction" left a man in jail and his wife and son dead.
Information from law enforcement agencies and interviews with neighbors suggested that a long-brewing mix of drugs, mental illness, homophobia and extreme family dysfunction had finally led to a tragic result.
Fifth, our study was single center, which also limits its external validity; however, our critical care unit is comparable to most multidisciplinary university-affiliated North American PICUs with regard to case mix and severity of illness.
There is great international variability in patient mix and severity of illness [ 7, 8, 9, 16, 17, 18].
When the eligible patient population can be defined appropriately, process measures are typically insensitive to differences in case mix and severity of illness [ 1, 26- 28].
Practice pattern variation has been attributed to many factors, including patient case mix and severity of illness, availability of resources and characteristics of the individual physician themselves [ 3, 4].
