An Educational Intervention Optimizes the Use of Arterial Blood Gas Determinations Across ICUs From Different Specialties

Overuse of arterial blood gas (ABG) determinations leads to increased costs, inefficient use of staff work hours, and patient discomfort and blood loss. We developed guidelines to optimize ABG use in the ICU.ABG use guidelines were implemented in all adult ICUs in our institution: three medical, two trauma-surgery, one cardiovascular, and one neurosurgical ICU. Although relying on pulse oximetry, we encouraged the use of ABG determination after...