Outcomes of traumatically injured patients after nighttime transfer from the intensive care unit

• Published in: Trauma surgery & acute care open 2024, Vol.9 (1), p.e001451
• Main Authors: Howk, Amy, Clegg, Devin John, Balmer, Jacob C, Foster, Natalie G, Gerard, Justin, Rowe, Anthony S, Daley, Brian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Original Research
• ISSN: 2397-5776; 2397-5776
• DOI: 10.1136/tsaco-2024-001451

Prior studies have associated nighttime transfer of patients from the intensive care unit (ICU) with increased morbidity. This study sought to examine this relationship in traumatically injured patients, as this has not been previously performed. A retrospective review of traumatically injured patients admitted to a Level I Trauma Center's ICU from January 2021 to September 2022 was performed. "Day shift" (DS) was defined as 07:00 to 19:00 and "night shift" (NS) as 19:01 to 06:59. The time of transfer completion was based on the time of the patient arrival at the destination unit. The univariate analysis compared patients with completed transfers during DS and NS. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to predict readmission to the ICU. A total of 1,800 patients were included in the analysis, with 608 patients that had completed transfers during NS, and 1,192 during DS. Both groups were similar, with no significant differences in age, sex, Injury Severity Score (ISS), mechanism of injury, or median total comorbidities. The NS group had a longer median time to transfer completion (10.1 (IQR 5.5-13.6) hours vs 5.1 (IQR 2.9-8.4) hours; p