Costes de la calidad en Medicina Intensiva. Guía para gestores clínicos

Risk factors for length of NICU stay of newborns: A systematic review

Background

The improvement in survival of preterm infants is accompanied by an increase in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admissions. Prolonged length of stay in the NICU (LOS-NICU) increases the incidence of neonatal complications and even mortality and places a significant economic burden on families and strain on healthcare systems. This review aims to identify risk factors influencing LOS-NICU of newborns and to provide a basis for interventions to shorten LOS-NICU and avoid prolonged LOS-NICU.

Methods

A systematic literature search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Cochrane library for studies that were published in English from January 1994 to October 2022. The PRISMA guidelines were followed in all phases of this systematic review. The Quality in Prognostic Studies (QUIPS) tool was used to assess methodological quality.

Results

Twenty-three studies were included, 5 of which were of high quality and 18 of moderate quality, with no low-quality literature. The studies reported 58 possible risk factors in six broad categories (inherent factors; antenatal treatment and maternal factors; diseases and adverse conditions of the newborn; treatment of the newborn; clinical scores and laboratory indicators; organizational factors).

Conclusions

We identified several of the most critical risk factors affecting LOS-NICU, including birth weight, gestational age, sepsis, necrotizing enterocolitis, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, and retinopathy of prematurity. As only a few high-quality studies are available at present, well-designed and more extensive prospective studies investigating the risk factors affecting LOS-NICU are still needed in the future.

Influence of age in the duration of the stay and mortality of patients who remain in an Intensive Care Unit for a prolonged time

BACKGROUNDS AND OBJECTIVE

The true role of the age in the prognosis of patients admitted in the ICU is not known. This work analyzes the influence of age on the duration of the stay and mortality of patients who remain in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for a long period of time.

PATIENTS AND METHOD

A retrospective, observational study was performed with patients hospitalized ≥14 days in the ICU. Three age groups were established: <50, 50-70 and >70 years. The influence of different factors on the relationship existing between stay and age was studied. In addition, stay and survival in the ICU, hospital and at one year were analyzed based on the groups.

RESULTS

A total of 707 patients were included. Significant differences in hospital stay (P=.183) were not found among the three groups. The older group, which showed greater severity on admission, was the group undergoing the most tracheostomies (74.7%) and extrarenal purification (HDF) (10.8%). When the influence of factors such as APACHE II, pre-ICU stay, origin, tracheostomy or hemodiafiltration (HDF) were analyzed, no relation was found between stay and age of patient. Survival decreased as age increased.

CONCLUSIONS

No differences were found in stay based on age, although a difference was found in mortality.

The future of intensive care medicine

Intensive care medical training, whether as a primary specialty or as secondary add-on training, should include key competences to ensure a uniform standard of care, and the number of intensive care physicians needs to increase to keep pace with the growing and anticipated need. The organisation of intensive care in multiple specialty or central units is heterogeneous and evolving, but appropriate early treatment and access to a trained intensivist should be assured at all times, and intensivists should play a pivotal role in ensuring communication and high-quality care across hospital departments. Structures now exist to support clinical research in intensive care medicine, which should become part of routine patient management. However, more translational research is urgently needed to identify areas that show clinical promise and to apply research principles to the real-life clinical setting. Likewise, electronic networks can be used to share expertise and support research. Individuals, physicians and policy makers need to allow for individual choices and priorities in the management of critically ill patients while remaining within the limits of economic reality. Professional scientific societies play a pivotal role in supporting the establishment of a defined minimum level of intensive health care and in ensuring standardised levels of training and patient care by promoting interaction between physicians and policy makers. The perception of intensive care medicine among the general public could be improved by concerted efforts to increase awareness of the services provided and of the successes achieved.

[Management of quality in an Intensive Care Unit: implementation of ISO 9001:2008 international standard]

The Quality Management Systems make it possible to prioritize actions to maintain the safety and efficacy of health technologies. The Intensive Care Unit of our hospital has implemented a quality management plan, which has obtained accreditation as "Service Certificate that manages its activities according to UNE-EN ISO 9001:2008" standard. With the application of quality management system, it has been possible to detect the needs that the Service can cover in order to obtain the satisfaction of the patient, relative or health personnel of the other services of the hospital, to improve communications inside and outside of service, to secure greater understanding of the processes of the organization and control of risk, to delimit responsibilities clearly to all the personnel, to make better use of the time and resources and, finally, to improve the motivation of the personnel.

Health-related quality of life as a prognostic factor of survival in critically ill patients

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate whether health-related quality of life prior to admission into an intensive care unit (ICU) is a prognostic factor of hospital and 1 year mortality.

DESIGN

Prospective cohort study.

SETTING

Fourteen-bed medical-surgical ICU.

PATIENTS

A total of 377 patients admitted to the ICU for more than 24 h with 1-year follow-up after discharge from the hospital.

INTERVENTION

A health-related quality of life (HRQoL) survey was conducted, using the questionnaire developed by the "Project for the Epidemiological Analysis of Critical Care Patients", to assess patient's quality of life 1 month before ICU hospitalization.

RESULTS

Hospital mortality was independently associated with severity assessed by APACHE II, odds ratio (OR) 1.14 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.08-1.2; P < 0.001], high workload assessed by Nine Equivalents of Nursing Manpower Score > 30 OR 3.6 (95% CI 1.4-9.0; P = 0.006), hospital length of stay prior to ICU admission of more than 2 days OR 2.6 (95% CI 1.3-5.4; P = 0.008), and bad quality of life prior to ICU admission assessed by a HRQoL score > or = 8 points OR 2.2 (95% CI 1.03-4.5; P = 0.04). Patients who scored > or =8 on the HRQoL survey presented a risk of demise 12 months after discharge almost twofold that of those who had good previous HRQoL (0-2 points), Hazard Ratio 1.9 (95% CI 1.3-2.8; P = 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Bad quality of life is associated with hospital mortality and survival 12 months after hospital discharge.

[Characteristics and prognosis of patients with very long stay in an Intensive Care Unit]

OBJECTIVE

To describe the characteristics and prognostic factors of elderly patients hospitalized for > or = 30 days in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

DESIGN

Retrospective analysis of prospectively collected simple data over 6 consecutive years.

SETTING

Polyvalent ICU of the Insular University Hospital in the Canary Islands (Spain).

PATIENTS

Adult patients > or = 70 years who were hospitalized in the ICU for a period of 30 or more days.

PRIMARY VARIABLES OF INTEREST

Demographic data, clinical diagnosis on ICU admission, Apache II, days of renal replacement therapy (RRT), days of mechanical ventilation and the outcome of the survivors one year later were collected. Mortality at one year of the surviving patients was studied.

RESULTS

During the study period, 3,786 patients were admitted to the ICU. Of these, 853 (22.5%) patients were > or = 70 years old and only 42 (4.92%) of these patients remained in the ICU for > or = 30 days. We compared the latter with the > or = 70 year old patients whose stay in the ICU stay was < 30 days. No statistically significant differences in ICU mortality, Apache II, age, gender and the need for RRT were found. As independent variables associated with the long stay, the multivariate analysis showed only the days of mechanical ventilation (p < 0.05). The surviving patients (> or = 70 years old and whose stay in the ICU was > or = 30 days) were older and 21 (65.62%) were still alive one year later.

CONCLUSIONS

ICU mortality rates in elderly patients with a stay < or > or = 30 days in the ICU were comparable. Survival at one year of the > or = 70 year-old patients whose long-term intensive care unit stay was > or = 30 days was high. These results are sufficient in our unit to justify prolonged ICU care for elderly patients.