Impact of ICU Transfer Delays on Patient Outcomes from a Tertiary Hospital Study

A prospective cohort study from a tertiary academic hospital examined 1,913 patients admitted to the emergency room with a request for intensive care unit admission. The research, authored by Fernanda Ribeiro Quintino Santos, analyzed the relationship between waiting time for ICU transfer and outcomes like length of stay and mortality. The median length of stay in the emergency room was 17 hours, and 31% of the 6,176 patients treated required an ICU bed.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the association between emergency room waiting times and ICU length of stay based on patient grouping by tertiles.
• Investigating predictors of prolonged ICU stay, such as hospitalization for infection/sepsis, using odds ratios from the study.
• Comparing mortality rates across different waiting time groups for ICU admission.
• Modeling patient flow and resource demand in emergency and intensive care units based on admission request data.

Strengths

• Study includes data from 1,913 patients with documented ICU admission requests.
• Provides specific statistical results, including an odds ratio of 2.75 for infection/sepsis as a predictor of prolonged ICU stay.
• Defines clear patient groups based on waiting time tertiles (e.g., Group 1: < 637 min, Group 3: > 1602 min).

Limitations

• Row count and column-level documentation for the underlying dataset are unknown, limiting suitability assessment.
• Data originates from a single tertiary academic hospital, which may reflect geographic and institutional bias.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Fernanda Ribeiro Quintino Santos via paperswithcode

Collection Method

Prospective cohort study performed in a tertiary academic hospital.