title: Using severity measures to describe high performance intensive care units.
abstract: This article describes the use of various scores and probabilities to clinically categorize patients in the adult intensive care unit. Some of the limitations of these severity measures are reviewed including variable definitions, timing of measurements, and whether models can be used for individual patients. Also, this article discusses how probability models may be used to compare similar types of intensive care units using standardized clinical and cost performance indices.
authors.affiliation: Adult Critical Care Division, Baystate Medical Center, Springfield, MA.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Teres
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lemeshow
mesh_terms: D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients / Q000145:classification*; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D010343:Patient Admission; D010351:Patient Discharge; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014218:Triage