Long-stay pediatric intensive care unit patients: outcome and resource utilization.
Outcome, resource utilization, and health care characteristics of patients staying in a multidisciplinary pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) for more than 13 days (long-stay patients) were analyzed. Of 647 children admitted consecutively, 46 were long-stay patients. Compared with short-stay patients, long-stay patients were significantly younger and sicker and had a higher incidence of chronic disease. Most important, long-stay patients had significantly higher PICU mortality rates (17.4% v 7.3%, P less than .05) and hospital mortality rates (23.9% v 8.7%, P less than .01) than short-stay PICU patients. Although only 7.1% of the patient sample, long-stay patients consumed approximately 50% of all PICU resources. One-year follow-up on those long-stay patients surviving their hospitalization revealed that 58% had died or were severely disabled. Long-stay patients had relatively poor prognoses and consumed health care resources in excess of their numeric proportions.
Pollack
M M
MM
Department of Anesthesiology (Division of Critical Care), Children's Hospital National Medical Center, Washington, DC 20010.
Wilkinson
J D
JD
Glass
N L
NL
D000367:Age Factors; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002908:Chronic Disease; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D010372:Pediatrics; D011379:Prognosis; D013997:Time Factors