Use Of Intensive Care Unit Beds Research Articles

Surviving The Surge: Nonurgent Elective Procedures, Intensive Care, And Mississippi’s COVID-19 Waves

During the COVID-19 pandemic in Mississippi in 2020 and 2021, nonurgent elective procedures requiring hospitalization were halted three times to preserve the state's hospital resources. To evaluate the change in hospital intensive care unit (ICU) capacity after the implementation of this policy, we analyzed Mississippi's hospital discharge data. We compared daily mean ICU admissions and census for nonurgent elective procedures between three intervention periods and baseline periods corresponding to Mississippi State Department of Health executive orders. We further evaluated the observed and predicted trends, using interrupted time series analyses. Overall, the executive orders reduced the mean number of ICU admissions for elective procedures from 13.4 patients to 9.8 patients daily (a 26.9percent decline). This policy also decreased the mean ICU census for nonurgent elective procedures from 68.0 patients to 56.6 patients daily (a 16.8percent decline). The state managed to free, on average, eleven ICU beds daily. Postponing nonurgent elective procedures in Mississippi was a successful strategy that resulted in a decline in ICU bed use for nonurgent elective surgeries during times of unprecedented stress on the health care system.

Projected effects of nonpharmaceutical public health interventions to prevent resurgence of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in Canada.

Continual efforts to eliminate community transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) will be needed to prevent additional waves of infection. We explored the impact of nonpharmaceutical interventions on projected SARS-CoV-2 transmission in Canada. We developed an age-structured agent-based model of the Canadian population simulating the impact of current and projected levels of public health interventions on SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Interventions included case detection and isolation, contact tracing and quarantine, physical distancing and community closures, evaluated alone and in combination. Without any interventions, 64.6% (95% credible interval [CrI] 63.9%-65.0%) of Canadians will be infected with SARS-CoV-2 (total attack rate) and 3.6% (95% CrI 2.4%-3.8%) of those infected and symptomatic will die. If case detection and contact tracing continued at baseline levels without maintained physical distancing and reimplementation of restrictive measures, this combination brought the total attack rate to 56.1% (95% CrI 0.05%-57.1%), but it dropped to 0.4% (95% CrI 0.03%-23.5%) with enhanced case detection and contact tracing. Combining the latter scenario with maintained physical distancing reduced the total attack rate to 0.2% (95% CrI 0.03%-1.7%) and was the only scenario that consistently kept hospital and intensive care unit bed use under capacity, prevented nearly all deaths and eliminated the epidemic. Extending school closures had minimal effects but did reduce transmission in schools; however, extending closures of workplaces and mixed-age venues markedly reduced attack rates and usually or always eliminated the epidemic under any scenario. Controlling SARS-CoV-2 transmission will depend on enhancing and maintaining interventions at both the community and individual levels. Without such interventions, a resurgent epidemic will occur, with the risk of overwhelming our health care systems.

The Emergency Department's Impact on Inpatient Critical Care Resources.

Critical care is an expensive and limited resource in the United States. Estimates from more than a decade ago suggest that over $100 billion a year is spent on critical care services.1 Over the past two decades, the number of patients presenting to the Emergency Department (ED) requiring critical care services has increased at a much higher rate than the growth in overall ED volume.2,3 The proportion of ED patients requiring Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission has increased 75% over the first decade of the twenty-first century. In addition to the increase in the absolute number of patients requiring critical care admission, the ED length of stay for critically ill patients increased by 60 minutes. This resulted in a total nationwide increase in critical care provided in the ED by more than threefold. This disproportionate increase in critical care time reflects both the increase in critical care volume and the increase in ED boarding of critically ill patients. Data from 2008 reported the median boarding time for a patient waiting in the ED for an ICU bed was more than 5 hours, and 30% of patients waited more than 6 hours for an ICU bed.2,3 This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Lactate level during cardiopulmonary bypass as a predictor of postoperative outcomes in adult patients undergoing cardiac surgery.

BackgroundIt has been reported that prolonged intensive care unit (ICU) stay after cardiac surgery is associated with poor patient outcome. In addition, prolonged stay can block the efficient use of ICU beds with an increase in expenditure of health-care costs. The aim of the present study was to retrospectively determine which pre- and intra-operative factors could significantly affect ICU-free survival days (IFSD) which has been suggested to reflect postoperative patients’ outcome, as well as variables significantly associated with the main predictors of IFSD.FindingsWe reviewed anesthesia charts and medical records of 145 patients undergoing cardiac surgery under cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) in our hospital from January 2014 to October 2015, and 72 patients’ records were finally used for the analysis. IFSD was a median of 25 days (95% CI 24–26). The multiple regression analysis indicated that preoperative estimated glomerular filtration rate, differences between preoperative mean arterial pressure and mean CPB pressure, and blood lactate level at 2 h after CPB (CPB-2 h) were independently associated with IFSD (β regression coefficients 0.086, −0.083, and −3.601, respectively).ConclusionIn addition to preoperative renal function and differences between preoperative MAP and CPB pressure, the lactate level at CPB-2 h could be a major predictor of postoperative outcome in patients undergoing cardiac surgery.

Optimizing intensive care capacity using individual length-of-stay prediction models

IntroductionEffective planning of elective surgical procedures requiring postoperative intensive care is important in preventing cancellations and empty intensive care unit (ICU) beds. To improve planning, we constructed, validated and tested three models designed to predict length of stay (LOS) in the ICU in individual patients.MethodsRetrospective data were collected from 518 consecutive patients who underwent oesophagectomy with reconstruction for carcinoma between January 1997 and April 2005. Three multivariable linear regression models for LOS, namely preoperative, postoperative and intra-ICU, were constructed using these data. Internal validation was assessed using bootstrap sampling in order to obtain validated estimates of the explained variance (r2). To determine the potential gain of the best performing model in day-to-day clinical practice, prospective data from a second cohort of 65 consecutive patients undergoing oesophagectomy between May 2005 and April 2006 were used in the model, and the predictive performance of the model was compared with prediction based on mean LOS.ResultsThe intra-ICU model had an r2 of 45% after internal validation. Important prognostic variables for LOS included greater patient age, comorbidity, type of surgical approach, intraoperative respiratory minute volume and complications occurring within 72 hours in the ICU. The potential gain of the best model in day-to-day clinical practice was determined relative to mean LOS. Use of the model reduced the deficit number (underestimation) of ICU days by 65 and increased the excess number (overestimation) of ICU days by 23 for the cohort of 65 patients. A conservative analysis conducted in the second, prospective cohort of patients revealed that 7% more oesophagectomies could have been accommodated, and 15% of cancelled procedures could have been prevented.ConclusionPatient characteristics can be used to create models that will help in predicting LOS in the ICU. This will result in more efficient use of ICU beds and fewer cancellations.

Physicians’ perceptions and attitudes regarding inappropriate admissions and resource allocation in the intensive care setting

Physicians' perceptions regarding intensive care unit (ICU) resource allocation and the problem of inappropriate admissions are unknown. We carried out an anonymous, self-administered questionnaire survey to assess the perceptions and attitudes of ICU physicians at all 20 ICUs in Milan, Italy, regarding inappropriate admissions and resource allocation. Eighty-seven percent (225/259) of physicians responded. Inappropriate admissions were acknowledged by 86% of respondents. The reasons given were clinical doubt (33%); limited decision time (32%); assessment error (25%); pressure from superiors (13%), referring clinician (11%) or family (5%); threat of legal action (5%); and an economically advantageous 'Diagnosis Related Group' (1%). Respondents reported being pressurized to make more 'productive' use of ICU beds by Unit heads (frequently 16%), hospital management (frequently 10%) and colleagues (frequently 4%). Five percent reported refusing appropriate admissions following 'indications' not to admit financially disadvantageous cases. Admissions after elective surgery prioritized patients from profitable surgical departments: frequently for 6% of respondents and occasionally for 15%. Sixty-seven percent said they frequently received requests for appropriate admissions when no beds were available. This was considered sufficient reason to withdraw treatment from patients with lower survival probability (sometimes 21%) or for whom nothing more could be done (sometimes 51%, frequently 11%). Inappropriate ICU admissions were perceived as a common event but were mainly attributed to difficulties in assessing suitability. Physicians were aware that their decisions were often influenced by factors other than medical necessity. Economic influences were perceived as limited but not negligible. Decisions to forgo treatment could be influenced by the need to admit other patients.

Triage for surgical ICU: Anesthesiologist and intensivist as gatekeepers to ICU

Background: The demand for critical care beds among the medical services has already exceeded its supply. Thus allocating intensive care unit (ICU) beds to emergency cases is even more difficult task after doing triage for high risk scheduled elective cases as they fulfill the threshold for post operative intensive care. Materials and Methods: Retrospective observational study was done at Level-3 surgical ICU at tertiary referral hospital. Patients requiring mandatory postoperative ventilatory support and/ or ionotropic support who needed continuous haemodynamic monitoring were included in study. They were studied in two groups of elective and emergency cases against three headings of requisitions received for admissions, beds allotted for surgeries and patients admitted for postoperative intensive care. Intervention: One ICU bed was provided for emergency surgical case on daily basis. Other surgical admissions were triaged in three stages. Triage-1: It was done during preanaesthetic check-up and high risk patients were identified. Requisition forms in prescribed proforma were sent for level 2 triage, a day prior to surgery in all pre-booked elective cases. Triage-2: Urgency, refusals or appropriateness for admission was reassessed on prescribed proforma at second level triage by ICU in-charge. Triage-3: This was done for all operated patients in OT or recovery room by OT anaesthetist in consultation with operating surgical team. Result: Beds were allotted for 85.4% of emergency cases as against 74.7% of elective cases of total requisitions received for admissions. Out of these, 11.4% of emergency cases didn't meet the criteria for postoperative ICU care as against 51.2% of elective cases even when the beds were confirmed preoperatively. We admitted 124 cases over 6 months. Pearson's Chi Square test was used as test of significance. Conclusion: Individual institutional triage policy was helpful in equitable, ethical and efficient use of ICU beds for emergency services.

Making moral decisions when resources are limited – an approach to triage in ICU patients with respiratory failure

In a number of countries around the world there is evidence that the demand for intensive care unit (ICU) resources exceeds supply.1-5 Epidemiological evidence suggests that future demands on intensive care resources will increase, adding to the burden of provision.6 Southern Africa almost certainly faces similar challenges, although there is as yet little published medical literature documenting this.7 When ICU resources are critically constrained, there is an inevitable need to ration the use of ICU beds. This means that while some patients who will potentially benefit from ICU care will be able to receive it, others will not. Assuming an absolute deficiency of ICU resources (available beds and their accompanying manpower requirement, equipment and other resources), the inevitable consequence is that some deserving patients will be denied potentially life-saving ICU care. A critically important decision must therefore be made – which patients will be admitted and which patients will be refused ICU care, and on what basis. A structured process of decision making is vital to maximise consistency and the moral defensibility of these difficult decisions. This paper will describe possible approaches to making these decisions, discuss aspects of triage in patients with respiratory failure, and examine some of the consequences of ICU triage. SAJCC Vol. 21 (1) 2005: pp. 34-44

Ambulatory care-sensitive conditions: clinical outcomes and impact on intensive care unit resource use.

We identified risk factors and clinical outcomes associated with ambulatory care-sensitive conditions requiring intensive care unit (ICU) admission. This prospective cohort study included 4,144 patients admitted to the medical ICU of an urban teaching hospital during a 3-year period. A total of 627 patients were classified as having ambulatory care-sensitive conditions (ie, potentially preventable ICU admissions). Black race, decreasing Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score, younger age, female sex, and absence of immunodeficiency were independently associated with ambulatory care-sensitive conditions. Patients classified as having ambulatory care-sensitive conditions accounted for 2,006 ventilator days, 2,508 ICU days, and 5,392 hospital days. The hospital mortality rate was statistically lower for patients with ambulatory care-sensitive conditions than for patients without these conditions. Patients classified as having ambulatory care-sensitive conditions were also statistically more likely than other patients to lack health insurance and to sign out of the hospital against medical advice. Patients with ambulatory care-sensitive conditions account for a substantial portion of all admissions to the intensive care unit. These data suggest that interventions aimed at preventing such admissions could improve ICU bed use.

Coagulase-Negative Staphylococcal Bacteremia in the Changing Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Population

A fivefold increase in the number of cases of nosocomial coagulase-negative staphylococcal bacteremia was investigated in a neonatal intensive care unit between 1975 and 1982. This apparent outbreak was not the result of increased isolation of coagulase-negative staphylococci from blood cultures nor an increased frequency with which blood cultures were obtained. Rather, it was attributable to a dramatic increase in the overall probability that a positive blood culture would be interpreted as "bacteremia" as opposed to a contaminant by both physicians and infection control staff. Specifically, there had been a 62.3% increase in neonatal intensive care unit bed use by very-low-birth-weight (less than 1000-g) infants between 1975 and 1982, and in both years, positive blood cultures were 3.8 times as likely to be perceived as clinically significant if obtained from such tiny infants. The growing number of very-low-birth-weight babies occupying neonatal intensive care unit beds, coupled with the observation that blood cultures positive for coagulase-negative staphylococci are almost four times as likely to be perceived as clinically significant if obtained from extremely premature infants, may account for the reported increase in nosocomial coagulase-negative staphylococcal bacteremia.