title: Assessing illness severity and outcome in critically ill patients.
abstract: Severity of illness scores have great potential to improve use of scarce resources and to help monitor quality of care. Injury severity scores can reliably separate trauma patients into high- and low-mortality groups, but have limitations when applied in triage decision making. Specific predictive models for chest pain patients have improved admitting practices in some emergency departments. Univariate predictors of survival include age, severity of illness, and presence of chronic illnesses, especially cancer. General multivariate models for intensive care patients have correctly categorized hospital outcome in approximately 85 per cent of cases when applied in a retrospective fashion. These models are insufficiently precise for application to individual patients; but they may be helpful in assessing quality of care in the intensive care unit, in assessing efficacy of new technologies, and in utilization review audits.
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D003128:Coma / Q000175:diagnosis; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000175:diagnosis; D003422:Critical Care / Q000379:methods*; D004630:Emergencies; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009102:Multiple Organ Failure; D011379:Prognosis; D014218:Triage; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000175:diagnosis