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Impact of Bed Availability and Cognitive Load on Intensive Care Unit Bed Allocation: a Vignette-based Clinical Trial

U

University of Sao Paulo General Hospital

Status

Unknown

Conditions

This Study Evaluates the Clinical Decision-Making Associated With Intensive Care Units Rationing
There Are no Specific Conditions Under Study

Treatments

Behavioral: Increased cognitive load

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT02430454
43084815.0.0000.0068

Details and patient eligibility

About

Decisions about ICU beds allocations are made everyday, specially in countries with scarcity of ICU beds, such as Brazil. ICU triage, most of the time, is not structured, which may lead to faulty decision making, possibly leading to bad clinical outcomes. It has been shown that external factors may influence the decision making process. The investigators intend to evaluate the impact of bed availability and cognitive load on the ICU bed allocation process by submitting groups of individuals to a vignette based randomized controlled trial simulating conditions with or without increased cognitive load and conditions with or without scarcity of ICU beds.

Full description

Vignettes will be constructed based on consecutive patients for whom ICU bed was solicited. Vignettes will be validated through the evaluation of 8 experts in situations with or without bed scarcity. Vignettes with more than 80% concordance on ICU disposition (admission or refusion) will be used in the trial.

Intensive care doctors in Brazil will be asked to answer an online questionnaire with demographic characteristics and randomized to one of two groups. The experimental group will be submitted to increased cognitive load conditions, meaning that they will be encouraged to give their first impression on the vignettes, will have a time limit to answer the questions and will have popups with sound and videos, with the purpose to distract the respondents. The control group will be encouraged to think thoroughly and will have no time limit or distractions.

Vignettes will be presented, randomly, in conditions with or without scarcity of ICU beds to both groups. So, respondents with and without increased cognitive load will evaluate vignettes in conditions with and without scarcity of ICU beds.

Enrollment

178 patients

Sex

All

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

  • Intensive care unit doctors participating in specialty email lists

Exclusion criteria

  • Consent not provided

Trial design

178 participants in 2 patient groups

Experimental
Experimental group
Description:
Subjected to increased cognitive load
Treatment:
Behavioral: Increased cognitive load
Control
No Intervention group
Description:
Not subjected to increased cognitive load

Trial contacts and locations

0

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Data sourced from clinicaltrials.gov

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