Influence of age in the duration of the stay and mortality of patients who remain in an Intensive Care Unit for a prolonged time.

BACKGROUNDS AND OBJECTIVE: The true role of the age in the prognosis of patients admitted in the ICU is not known. This work analyzes the influence of age on the duration of the stay and mortality of patients who remain in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for a long period of time. PATIENTS AND METHOD: A retrospective, observational study was performed with patients hospitalized ≥14 days in the ICU. Three age groups were established: <50, 50-70 and >70 years. The influence of different factors on the relationship existing between stay and age was studied. In addition, stay and survival in the ICU, hospital and at one year were analyzed based on the groups. RESULTS: A total of 707 patients were included. Significant differences in hospital stay (P=.183) were not found among the three groups. The older group, which showed greater severity on admission, was the group undergoing the most tracheostomies (74.7%) and extrarenal purification (HDF) (10.8%). When the influence of factors such as APACHE II, pre-ICU stay, origin, tracheostomy or hemodiafiltration (HDF) were analyzed, no relation was found between stay and age of patient. Survival decreased as age increased. CONCLUSIONS: No differences were found in stay based on age, although a difference was found in mortality.

[Management of quality in an Intensive Care Unit: implementation of ISO 9001:2008 international standard]. / Gestión de la calidad en una unidad de cuidados intensivos: implementación de la norma ISO 9001:2008.

The Quality Management Systems make it possible to prioritize actions to maintain the safety and efficacy of health technologies. The Intensive Care Unit of our hospital has implemented a quality management plan, which has obtained accreditation as "Service Certificate that manages its activities according to UNE-EN ISO 9001:2008" standard. With the application of quality management system, it has been possible to detect the needs that the Service can cover in order to obtain the satisfaction of the patient, relative or health personnel of the other services of the hospital, to improve communications inside and outside of service, to secure greater understanding of the processes of the organization and control of risk, to delimit responsibilities clearly to all the personnel, to make better use of the time and resources and, finally, to improve the motivation of the personnel.

[Evacuation plan of an intensive care unit: a new quality indicator?]. / Plan de evacuación de la unidad de cuidados intensivos: ¿un nuevo indicador de calidad?

The intensive care units must be prepared for a possible disaster, whether internal or external, in case it becomes necessary to evacuate the in-patients. They must have an Emergency and Self-protection Plan that includes the patient evacuation criteria and this must be known by all the personnel who work in the service. For that reason, the patients must be triaged, based on their attention priorities, according to their survival possibilities. Having an evacuation, known by all the personnel and updated by means of the performance of periodic drills, should be included as a quality indicator that must be met, since this would achieve better attention to the patient in case of a disaster situation requiring the evacuation of the ICU.

[Seasonal influence in characteristics of patients admitted to an intensive care unit]. / Influencia estacional en las características de los pacientes ingresados en una unidad de cuidados intensivos.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate seasonal variability in the epidemiology and the outcome of critical illness. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data during the period 2001-2008. SETTING: Polyvalent intensive care unit (ICU) of a tertiary hospital in the Canary Islands. PATIENTS: Adult patients who were hospitalized in the ICU from the Emergency Department, according to the season period (spring, summer, autumn and winter). PRIMARY VARIABLES OF INTEREST: Demographic data, clinical diagnosis on ICU admission, APACHE II, need of mechanical ventilation and, finally, the mortality were collected. RESULTS: During the study period, 3,115 patients, coming from the Emergency Department, were hospitalized in our ICU. Of these, 21% were admitted during the summer, an incidence rate that is statistically lower than in other seasons of the year (P<0.001). We did not find any statistically significant differences between the four groups according to the age, type of patients, severity at the moment of admission to the ICU, according to the APACHE II score or in the mortality rate in the ICU. However, significant differences were found in regards to gender. Admission of women during the summer was higher than in winter (33% vs 27%, P=0.037). Average stay in the ICU of patients admitted in the summer was similar to winter (4.9 days vs 5.8 days; P=0.052). Need for mechanical ventilation and days it was required, by diagnostic groups, were similar between the summer and the winter. The multivariate analysis did not show independent variables associated with the seasonal period in which the patients were admitted. CONCLUSIONS: The stability of our climate implies that this factor does not influence the prognosis of patients who are admitted with critical illness.