Patient-reported outcomes are an invaluable tool to provide patients’ perceptions of quality of care. Measurement of sedation and agitation has traditionally been done with clinician-determined sedation assessments. Although a new sedation index is a significant predictor of various outcomes, the relationship between patient-reported outcomes and clinician-determined assessments is not known.
Malinowski and colleagues interviewed patients 24 to 96 hours after cessation of sedation to determine the usefulness of sedation and agitation indexes. They found that
One-third of the patients were able to estimate their time sedated to within 24 hours of the actual duration, indicating that patients were maintained at levels for accurate recall.
Many patients (43%) stated that they wanted more sedation.
About half of the patients described their experience with mechanical ventilation as unpleasant.
The agitation index was significantly correlated with several patient-related outcomes, including difficulty sleeping, inability to talk, and...
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