The situation of the neurological intensive care medicine in Germany

In 1994 this journal published the results of a survey undertaken on behalf of the Working Association for Neurological Intensive Care Medicine (ANIM) in the winter of 1992/93. In the winter of 1996/97 a continuation of this analysis was performed. With the help of a questionaire the data of 62 inte nsive care units with a total of 420 beds were established. This is 11 inte nsive care units and 83 beds more than 1992/93. The intensive care units we re again classified into three groups (ventilation units, monitoring units, interdisciplinary units) relating to their equipment and structure. The qu estions concerned structural organisation, such as the number of beds, type of clinic, number and training of physicians and nurses, technical equipme nt and availability of large and high-tech apparatus or access to other fac ilities, such as neurosurgery. Of great interest were data about whether an d to what extent special measures of intensive medicine can be taken on the one hand and performance parameter data e.g. days of ventilation and durat ion of in-patient treatment on the other hand. Detailed data were provided concerning the frequency of each diagnosis of patients treated in those int ensive care units. Evaluating the data a positive development in the last f our years of the neurological intensive care can be found in mast of the ar eas investigated. It has also been found that neurological intensive care i n the new lander has reached equal standard both in quality and quantity. N ow a single physician is responsible for 2,3 beds compared to 3,6. Today 78 per cent of the beds in ventilation units are equiped with a ventilator. T he overall time of ventilation Increased to 48 per cent. Overall there are, however, considerable differences between individual units as well as regi ons. The data presented can serve as a means to monitor the quality of neur ological intensive care.