The longer patients are in hospital before Intensive Care admission the higher their mortality

• Published in: Intensive care medicine 2004-10, Vol.30 (10), p.1908-1913
• Main Authors: GOLDHILL, David R, MCNARRY, Alistair F, HADJIANASTASSIOU, Vassilis G, TEKKIS, Paris P
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Anesthesia. Intensive care medicine. Transfusions. Cell therapy and gene therapy; Biological and medical sciences; Clinical death. Palliative care. Organ gift and preservation; Confidence intervals; Critical care; Critical Illness - mortality; Emergency and intensive cardiocirculatory care. Cardiogenic shock. Coronary intensive care; Emergency medical care; England - epidemiology; Female; Hospital Mortality; Hospitals; Humans; Intensive care; Intensive care medicine; Intensive Care Units - utilization; Length of stay; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Mortality; Patient Admission - statistics & numerical data; Patients; Physiology; Prospective Studies; Risk Factors; Surgery; Time Factors
• ISSN: 0342-4642; 1432-1238
• DOI: 10.1007/s00134-004-2386-2

To explore the relationship between hospital mortality and time spent by patients on hospital wards before admission to the intensive care unit (ICU). Observational study of prospectively collected data. Participating intensive care units within the North East Thames Regional Database. Patients, 7,190, admitted to ICU from the hospital wards of 24 hospitals. None. Of ICU admissions from the wards, 40.1% were in hospital for more than 3 days and 11.7% for more than 15 days. ICU patients who died in hospital were in-patients longer (p=0.001) before admission (median 3 days; interquartile range 1-9) than those discharged alive (median 2 days; interquartile range 1-5). Hospital mortality increased significantly (p