Hospital-Level Changes in Adult ICU Bed Supply in the United States.
OBJECTIVE
Although the number of intensive care beds in the United States is increasing, little is known about the hospitals responsible for this growth. We sought to better characterize national growth in intensive care beds by identifying hospital-level factors associated with increasing numbers of intensive care beds over time.


METHODS
We performed a repeated-measures time series analysis of hospital-level intensive care bed supply using data from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.


METHODS
All United States acute care hospitals with adult intensive care beds over the years 1996-2011.


METHODS
None.


METHODS
None.


RESULTS
We described the number of beds, teaching status, ownership, intensive care occupancy, and urbanicity for each hospital in each year of the study. We then examined the relationship between increasing intensive care beds and these characteristics, controlling for other factors. The study included 4,457 hospitals and 55,865 hospital-years. Overall, the majority of intensive care bed growth occurred in teaching hospitals (net, +13,471 beds; 72.1% of total growth), hospitals with 250 or more beds (net, +18,327 beds; 91.8% of total growth), and hospitals in the highest quartile of occupancy (net, +10,157 beds; 54.0% of total growth). In a longitudinal multivariable model, larger hospital size, teaching status, and high intensive care occupancy were associated with subsequent-year growth. Furthermore, the effects of hospital size and teaching status were modified by occupancy: the greatest odds of increasing ICU beds were in hospitals with 500 or more beds in the highest quartile of occupancy (adjusted odds ratio, 18.9; 95% CI, 14.0-25.5; p < 0.01) and large teaching hospitals in the highest quartile of occupancy (adjusted odds ratio, 7.3; 95% CI, 5.3-9.9; p < 0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
Increasingly, intensive care bed expansion in the United States is occurring in larger hospitals and teaching centers, particularly following a year with high ICU occupancy.
1Clinical Research, Investigation and Systems Modeling of Acute Illness (CRISMA) Center, Department of Critical Care Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA. 2Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA. 3Department of Health Policy and Management, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, Pittsburgh PA.
David J
DJ
Wallace
Christopher W
CW
Seymour
Jeremy M
JM
Kahn
D000328:Adult; D001509:Bed Occupancy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D014487:Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.; D006742:Hospital Bed Capacity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006761:Hospitals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States
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