Risk Factors for Unplanned Transfer to Intensive Care Within 24 Hours of Admission From the Emergency Department in an Integrated Healthcare System

BACKGROUND: Emergency department (ED) ward admissions subsequently transferred to the intensive care unit (ICU) within 24 hours have higher mortality than direct ICU admissions.

DESIGN, SETTING, PATIENTS: Describe risk factors for unplanned ICU transfer within 24 hours of ward arrival from the ED.

METHODS: Evaluation of 178,315 ED non-ICU admissions to 13 US community hospitals. We tabulated the outcome of unplanned ICU transfer by patient characteristics and hospital volume. We present factors associated with unplanned ICU transfer after adjusting for patient and hospital differences in a hierarchical logistic regression.

RESULTS: There were 4252 (2.4%) non-ICU admissions transferred to the ICU within 24 hours. Admitting diagnoses most associated with unplanned transfer, listed by descending prevalence were: pneumonia (odds ratio [OR] 1.5; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.2–1.9), myocardial infarction (MI) (OR 1.5; 95% CI 1.2–2.0), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (OR 1.4; 95% CI 1.1–1.9), sepsis (OR 2.5; 95% CI 1.9–3.3), and catastrophic conditions (OR 2.3; 95% CI 1.7–3.0). Other significant predictors included: male sex, Comorbidity Points Score >145, Laboratory Acute Physiology Score