Demographics and outcomes of hospital medicine patients admitted from the ED to a hospital floor that required early transfer to ICU, 2009–2018 (analysis does not include patients in year 2016 unless indicated otherwise)
| Total | Preintervention | During intervention | Postintervention | Significant p value* | |
| January 2009–November 2011 | December 2011– October 2012 | November 2012 – December 2018 | |||
| Demographics | |||||
| ED patients, N | 2765 | 710 | 291 | 1764 | |
| Age, mean (SD) | 65 (17) | 65 (17) | 66 (17) | 64 (17) | 0.04 |
| LOS, mean days (SD) | 7.4 (8.9) | 7.5 (8.4) | 6.2 (6.5) | 7.6 (9.3) | 0.70 |
| Median days | 5.0 | 5.0 | 4.6 | 5.0 | 0.79 |
| Primary discharge diagnosis†, N (%) | <0.001 | ||||
| Sepsis | 702 (25) | 144 (20) | 80 (27) | 478 (27) | |
| Stroke | 172 (6) | 33 (5) | 13 (4) | 126 (7) | |
| Respiratory failure | 145 (5) | 54 (8) | 14 (5) | 77 (4) | |
| Other | 1083 (62) | 479 (67) | 184 (63) | 1083 (61) | |
| Discharge to: N (%) | 0.27 | ||||
| Home | 1378 (50) | 347 (49) | 91 (50) | 899 (51) | |
| Skilled Nursing | 412 (15) | 114 (16) | 27 (15) | 255 (14) | |
| Expired | 333 (12) | 76 (11) | 21 (12) | 222 (13) | |
| Other | 642 (23) | 173 (24) | 43 (24) | 388 (22) | |
| Outcomes | |||||
| ED patients with early transfer to ICU, N (%)‡ | 671 (24) | 225 (32) | 77 (26) | 369 (21)§ | <0.001 |
| RRT calls, N | 7841 | 997 | 1346 | 5528 | – |
| RRT calls/day, mean | 2.7 | 3.0 | 3.9 | 2.5 | <0.001 |
*Pre versus post t-test for continuous variables, except for median LOS which is Wilcoxon rank-ssum test. χ2 for dichotomous variables.
†Discharge diagnosis determined by ICD9 and ICD10 codes: Sepsis 038, A40, A41; Stroke 431, 434, I61, I63; Respiratory failure 518.8, J96.
‡Transfer from floor or intermediate care unit to ICU within 24 hours.
§Excludes 2016.
ED, emergency department; ICU, intensive care unit; LOS, length of stay.