Patient Characteristics and Clinical and Economic Outcomes Associated with Unplanned Medical and Surgical Intensive Care Unit Admissions: A Retrospective Analysis.

To characterize medical and surgical patient characteristics, as well as clinical and economic outcomes, associated with unplanned intensive care unit (ICU) admissions. This was a retrospective matched cohort analysis that utilized the PINC AI A total of 3,807,124 qualifying admissions were identified. Medical admissions with unplanned ICU transfers were more likely to be urgent/emergent (odds ratio [OR] 2.9, 95% confidence interval [CI 2.7-3.0], p<0.0001), with patient characteristics including male sex (1.4, [1.4-1.4], p<0.0001), obesity (1.7, [1.6-1.7], p<0.0001), and increased Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI=1: 1.8, [1.8-1.9], p<0.0001; CCI≥5: 3.2, [3.1-3.3], p<0.0001). Surgical admissions with unplanned ICU transfers were more likely to be urgent/emergent (3.1, [2.9-3.2], p<0.0001) and with patients of higher CCI (2.5, [2.3-2.6], p<0.0001 to a CCI of≥5 (7.9, [7.4-8.4], p<0.0001). Between matched medical patients, mean differences in length of stay, cost, and mortality were 4.1 days (p<0.0001), $13,424 (p<0.0001), and 21% (p<0.0001), respectively. Between matched surgical patients, mean differences in these outcomes were 6.4 days (p<0.0001), $21,448 (p<0.0001), and 14% (p<0.0001), respectively. Emergency care in patients with a higher co-morbid burden is more likely to lead to unplanned ICU admission, putting patients at a significantly increased chance of mortality, longer length of stay, and increased costs. Improving care and monitoring of patients outside the ICU may help detect early changes in pathophysiology and enable early intervention.

Informations de copyright

© 2023 Khanna et al.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Roop Kaw reports consulting fees from Medtronic. Marilyn A. Moucharite and Patrick Benefield report full time employment with Medtronic. Ashish K. Khanna reports consulting fees from Medtronic, Edwards Lifesciences, Philips Research North America, GE Healthcare, Caretaker Medical, Retia Medical, Baxter, Trevena Pharmaceuticals and support via an NIH/NCATS KL2 award for a trial of continuous portable monitoring on hospital general care floors. The Department of Anesthesiology at Wake Forest School of Medicine is funded by Edwards Lifesciences, Masimo, and Medtronic. The authors report no other conflicts of interest in this work.