Intensive care utilisation after elective surgery in Australia and New Zealand: A point prevalence study.

Objective: We aimed to describe the characteristics, outcomes and resource utilisation of patients being cared for in an ICU after undergoing elective surgery in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ). Methods: This was a point prevalence study involving 51 adult ICUs in ANZ in June 2021. Patients met inclusion criteria if they were being treated in a participating ICU on he study dates. Patients were categorised according to whether they had undergone elective surgery, admitted directly from theatre or unplanned from the ward. Descriptive and comparative analysis was performed according to the source of ICU admission. Resource utilisation was measured by Length of stay, organ support and occupied bed days. Results: 712 patients met inclusion criteria, with 172 (24%) have undergone elective surgery. Of these, 136 (19%) were admitted directly to the ICU and 36 (5.1%) were an unplanned admission from the ward. Elective surgical patients occupied 15.8% of the total ICU patient bed days, of which 44.3% were following unplanned admissions. Elective surgical patients who were an unplanned admission from the ward, compared to those admitted directly from theatre, had a higher severity of illness (AP2 17 vs 13, p<0.01), require respiratory or vasopressor support (75% vs 44%, p<0.01) and hospital mortality (16.7% vs 2.2%, p < 0.01). Conclusions: ICU resource utilisation of patients who have undergone elective surgery is substantial. Those patients admitted directly from theatre have good outcomes and low resource utilisation. Patient admitted unplanned from the ward, although fewer, were sicker, more resource intensive and had significantly worse outcomes.

Intensive care utilisation after elective surgery in Australia and New Zealand: getting the balance right.

Of the total intensive care unit (ICU) admissions in Australia and New Zealand, 36.6% occur following an elective surgical procedure. How best to use ICU services in this setting is not clear, despite this being an expensive and resource-intensive method of care delivery. The literature relating to this area has not demonstrated a clear association between improved outcomes and routine ICU utilisation. It has, however, demonstrated that methods of care delivery in this setting vary at the local, national and international level. There is now an increased interest in how we can offer safe, efficient care to patients who need ICU-level support after elective surgery, as well as where and when that care can be offered. We had previously performed a literature review relating to ICU utilisation in the elective surgical post-operative setting. This perspective piece arises from this literature review as well as extensive clinical experience from the authors. We discuss the need for a move towards an evidence-based indication for ICU admission and how this may be achieved. We then move on to the various alternative models of care that could be offered, briefly discussing their positives and potential drawbacks. We finish by outlining the research priorities and how these might be implemented in clinical practice. Getting the balance right between ICU admission and higher acuity ward-level care for post-operative elective surgical patients is difficult. However, this is an important challenge that we as a healthcare community must be working to answer.

Equity of access to critical care services in Scotland: A Bayesian spatial analysis.

BACKGROUND: There is increasing evidence that access to critical care services is not equitable. We aimed to investigate whether location of residence in Scotland impacts on the risk of admission to an Intensive Care Unit and on outcomes. METHODS: This was a population-based Bayesian spatial analysis of adult patients admitted to Intensive Care Units in Scotland between January 2011 and December 2015. We used a Besag-York-Mollié model that allows us to make direct probabilistic comparisons between areas regarding risk of admission to Intensive Care Units and on outcomes. RESULTS: A total of 17,596 patients were included. The five-year age- and sex-standardised admission rate was 352 per 100,000 residents. There was a cluster of Council Areas in the North-East of the country which had lower adjusted admission rates than the Scottish average. Midlothian, in South East Scotland had higher spatially adjusted admission rates than the Scottish average. There was no evidence of geographical variation in mortality. CONCLUSION: Access to critical care services in Scotland varies with location of residence. Possible reasons include differential co-morbidity burden, service provision and access to critical care services. In contrast, the probability of surviving an Intensive Care Unit admission, if admitted, does not show geographical variation.

Geographical access to critical care services in Scotland.

BACKGROUND: Critical illness requires specialist and timely management. The aim of this study was to create a geographic accessibility profile of the Scottish population to emergency departments and intensive care units. METHODS: This was a descriptive, geographical analysis of population access to 'intermediate' and 'definitive' critical care services in Scotland. Access was defined by the number of people able to reach services within 45 to 60 min, by road and by helicopter. Access was analysed by health board, rurality and as a country using freely available geographically referenced population data. RESULTS: Ninety-six percent of the population reside within a 45-min drive of the nearest intermediate critical care facility, and 94% of the population live within a 45-min ambulance drive time to the nearest intensive care unit. By helicopter, these figures were 95% and 91%, respectively. Some health boards had no access to definitive critical care services within 45 min via helicopter or road. Very remote small towns and very remote rural areas had poorer access than less remote and rural regions.

Analysis of aeromedical retrieval coverage using elliptical isochrones: An evaluation of helicopter fleet size configurations in Scotland.

BACKGROUND: Trauma systems in remote and rural regions often rely on helicopter emergency medical services to facilitate access to definitive care. The siting of such resources is key, but often relies on simplistic modeling of coverage, using circular isochrones. Scotland is in the process of implementing a national trauma network, and there have been calls for an expansion of aeromedical retrieval capacity. The aim of this study was to analyze population and area coverage of the current retrieval service configuration, with three aircraft, and a configuration with an additional helicopter, in the North East of Scotland, using a novel methodology. Both overall coverage and coverage by physician-staffed aircraft, with enhanced clinical capability, were analyzed. METHODS: This was a geographical analysis based on calculation of elliptical isochrones, which consider the "open-jaw" configuration of many retrieval flights. Helicopters are not always based at hospitals. We modeled coverage based on different outbound and inbound flights. Areally referenced population data were obtained from the Scottish Government. RESULTS: The current helicopter network configuration provides 94.2% population coverage and 59.0% area coverage. The addition of a fourth helicopter would marginally increase population coverage to 94.4% and area coverage to 59.1%. However, when considering only physician-manned aircraft, the current configuration provides only 71.7% population coverage and 29.4% area coverage, which would be increased to 91.1% and 51.2%, respectively, with a second aircraft. CONCLUSIONS: Scotland's current helicopter network configuration provides good population coverage for retrievals to major trauma centers, which would only be increased minimally by the addition of a fourth aircraft in the North East. The coverage provided by the single physician-staffed aircraft is more limited, however, and would be increased considerably by a second physician-staffed aircraft in the North East. Elliptical isochrones provide a useful means of modeling "open-jaw" retrieval missions and provide a more realistic estimate of coverage. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Epidemiological study, level IV; therapeutic study, level IV.

Factors influencing intensive care admission: a mixed methods study of EM and ICU.

OBJECTIVES: Twenty-six percent of ICU patients in the UK are referred directly from the Emergency Department (ED). There is limited literature examining the attitudes or practice of ED/ICU physicians towards referrals from the ED to the ICU. We examined these attitudes through a mixed methods study, designing a model incorporating these attitudes to promote a shared mental model between ED and ICU specialities. METHODS: Individual semistructured interviews were conducted with 11 ED consultants and 11 ICU consultants at two hospitals in the west of Scotland. Interviews were based on 10 'case-based vignettes' representing patients for whom referral from the ED to the ICU is borderline or challenging. Participants were asked to note whether they would refer/accept the patient from the ED to the ICU. The proportions of participants from each speciality choosing to refer or accept patients were compared using a t-test comparing proportions. The reasons behind these decisions were explored during the semistructured interviews. RESULTS: Twelve factors emerged as influencing the decisions made by the participants. These belonged three core themes: patient factors, clinician factors and resource factors, which were incorporated into a shared mental model. Two cases demonstrated statistically significant differences in referral rates between specialities. There were also clinically significant differences among other cases. CONCLUSION: We have described the attitudes of physicians towards ED to ICU referrals in two west of Scotland hospitals, and we have demonstrated that there is a difference in the aspects of the decision-making process. We have developed a model encompassing all factors considered by participants when assessing these difficult referrals. It is hoped that this model will promote shared and more efficient decision-making in the future.

The utility of scoring systems in critically ill cirrhotic patients admitted to a general intensive care unit.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to establish which prognostic scoring tool provides the greatest discriminative ability when assessing critically ill cirrhotic patients in a general intensive care unit (ICU) setting. METHODS: This was a 12-month, single-centered prospective cohort study performed in a general, nontransplant ICU. Forty clinical and demographic variables were collected on admission to calculate 8 prospective scoring tools. Patients were followed up to obtain ICU and inhospital mortality. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to determine the discriminative ability of the scores. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to identify any independent predictors of mortality in these patients. The incorporation of any significant variables into the scoring tools was assessed. RESULTS: Fifty-nine cirrhotic patients were admitted over the study period, with an ICU mortality of 31%. All scores other than the renal-specific Acute Kidney Injury Network score had similar discriminative abilities, producing area under the curves of between 0.70 and 0.76. None reached the clinically applicable level of 0.8. The Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score was the best performing score. Lactate and ascites were individual predictors of ICU mortality with statistically significant odds ratios of 1.69 and 5.91, respectively. When lactate was incorporated into the Child-Pugh score, its prognostic accuracy increased to a clinically applicable level (area under the curve, 0.86). CONCLUSIONS: This investigation suggests that established prognostic scoring systems should be used with caution when applied to the general, nontransplant ICU as compared to specialist centers. Our data suggest that serum arterial lactate may improve the prognostic ability of these scores.