Outcome and Cost of Prolonged Stay in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit

Survival and Functional Outcome After Prolonged Intensive Care Unit Stay

“…SIP scores have been reported to range from 4.9 to 16.1 for ICU patients, based on the APACHE II score. 15 This compares with a SIP score of 3 for the general healthy population, 6.8 for patients after a traumatic injury, and 24 for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. 14,15,17,23 Our study has several limitations.…”

Analyzing the impact of long-term patients on ICU bed utilization

“…This study examined methods of identifying and analyzing the impact of such patients on bed utilization. Initial analyses selected an LOS value as an exceedence threshold 1323 [7,8,11], and others have used higher thresholds, such as 20 or 30 days [12,13,14,15,16]. Among homogeneous populations with low median ICU stays, for example, postcoronary artery bypass surgery, thresholds for prolonged stay as low as 2 days have been employed [17,18].…”

“…1). Another threshold of 15 days was chosen based both on visual analysis and a literature review [7,8,11]. Interestingly, designating 5 % of the longest stays as long-term patients resulted in threshold stays of 13 and 19 days in ICU 1 and ICU 2, respectively.…”

“…A threshold of 15 days or longer was chosen because it represented stays greater than 2 weeks; this was the point of a further flattening of the frequency distribution ( Fig. 1), and previous investigators have used similar thresholds [7,8]. A threshold of 30 days or longer was chosen because it represented the LOS value after which there were only isolated patients (Fig.…”

The enhanced postoperative care system

“…Another group remains in the ICU for 4 to 10 days and undergoes intense physiological monitoring and many interventions. The remaining patients have prolonged stays (N 10 days) caused by complex problems (eg, multiple organ system dysfunction, refractory respiratory failure) that require prolonged mechanical ventilation and many nursing and medical resources [22,23].…”