Abstract
Objective:To determine the characteristics and outcomes of patients with prolonged stay in a tertiary-care ICU.Method:Electronic database records of patients 18 years or older and hospitalized in the ICU from March 2010 to March 2013 were enrolled. Age, gender, main reason for ICU admission, length of mechanical ventilation and ICU stay, in-hospital and one year mortality were noted.Results:Electronic database records of patients 18 years or older and hospitalized in the ICU from March 2010 to March 2013 were enrolled. Age, gender, main reason for ICU admission, length of mechanical ventilation and ICU stay, in-hospital and one year mortality were noted.Conclusion:Patients with a prolonged ICU stay constituted a small percentage of all ICU admissions but they proportionally used many more ICU bed days than short-stay patients. The mortality of prolonged ICU stay patients was very high. Very few survivors were living independently at one year. Thus, development of intermediate care units, palliative care and home care services are emerging necessities, to decrease the LOS in ICUs.
Highlights
Limited Intensive care unit (ICU) beds are major problem worldwide
The Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS) II scores and number of females were significantly higher in patients with longer ICU stays (Table 1)
A study from Australia found that mortality and inability to live independently at three months post-discharge was very high among stroke patients admitted to the ICU [15]
Summary
As is the case in most countries around the world, the number of ICU beds has increased in our country over the past few years, from 16,020 in 2009 to 23,606 in 2012 [1]. This number is still far below what is needed to meet demand. The proportional rate of beds in ICU are few within the total hospital beds; the use of intensive monitoring, frequent laboratory testing, advanced imaging studies, and low patient: staff ratios result in ICU care constituting a large proportion of healthcare costs [4,5]
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