title: Evaluation of paediatric intensive care in a regional centre.
abstract: All 162 consecutive admissions to a multidisciplinary paediatric intensive care unit in the UK have been prospectively evaluated in terms of therapeutic intention, sickness levels, age, utilisation of resources, and outcome. For 101 (62.3%) of the children admitted the aim of treatment was to cure the condition but for 30 (18.5%) ultimately only a palliative option was available. Five children were admitted to avail of specialised monitoring facilities. One half of the children admitted were physiologically unstable. The majority (102, 62.9%) were age 12 months or less. Resource utilisation, which was not affected by therapeutic intention, was greatest for the sickest patients, those age 1 month or less and non-survivors. Mortality rate overall was 17.9%. Mortality was unaffected by age and therapeutic intention and was inversely related to level of sickness. The information provided by this study forms a basis for medical audit within the unit and is essential for meaningful comparisons of standards of care and outcome with other units.
authors.affiliation: Intensive Care Unit, Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McAloon
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Crean
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jenkins
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: McClure
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D015278:Intensive Care Units, Pediatric / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic; D009660:Northern Ireland; D010166:Palliative Care; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016896:Treatment Outcome