The Development and Operation of a Home Management System during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Experience of the Local Government Gyeonggi-do in Korea.

During the three the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) surges in South Korea, there was a shortage of hospital beds for COVID-19 patients, and as a result, there were cases of death while waiting for hospitalization. To minimize the risk of death and to allow those confirmed with COVID-19 to safely wait for hospitalization at home, the local government of Gyeonggi-do in South Korea developed a novel home management system (HMS). The HMS team, comprised of doctors and nurses, was organized to operate HMS. HMS provided a two-way channel for the taskforce and patients to monitor the severity of patient's condition and to provide healthcare counseling as needed. In addition, the HMS team cooperated with a triage/bed assignment team to expedite the response in case of an emergency, and managed a database of severity for real-time monitoring of patients. The HMS became operational for the first time in August 2020, initially managing only 181 patients; it currently manages a total of 3,707 patients. The HMS supplemented the government's COVID-19 confirmed case management framework by managing patients waiting at home for hospitalization due to lack of hospital and residential treatment center beds. HMS also could contribute a sense of psychological stability in patients and prevented the situation from worsening by efficient management of hospital beds and reduction of workloads on public healthcare centers. To stabilize and improve the management of COVID-19 confirmed cases, governments should organically develop self-treatment and HMS, and implement a decisive division of roles within the local governments.

Mind the clinical-analytic gap: Electronic health records and COVID-19 pandemic response.

Data quality is essential to the success of the most simple and the most complex analysis. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, large-scale data sharing across the US and around the world has played an important role in public health responses to the pandemic and has been crucial to understanding and predicting its likely course. In California, hospitals have been required to report a large volume of daily data related to COVID-19. In order to meet this need, electronic health records (EHRs) have played an important role, but the challenges of reporting high-quality data in real-time from EHR data sources have not been explored. We describe some of the challenges of utilizing EHR data for this purpose from the perspective of a large, integrated, mixed-payer health system in northern California, US. We emphasize some of the inadequacies inherent to EHR data using several specific examples, and explore the clinical-analytic gap that forms the basis for some of these inadequacies. We highlight the need for data and analytics to be incorporated into the early stages of clinical crisis planning in order to utilize EHR data to full advantage. We further propose that lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic can result in the formation of collaborative teams joining clinical operations, informatics, data analytics, and research, ultimately resulting in improved data quality to support effective crisis response.

Hospital bed supply and inequality as determinants of maternal mortality in China between 2004 and 2016.

BACKGROUND: Driven by the government's firm commitment to promoting maternal health, maternal mortality ratio (MMR) in China has achieved a remarkable reduction over the past 25 years. Paralleled with the decline of MMR has been the expansion of hospital bed supply as well as substantial reduction in hospital bed distribution inequalities, which were thought to be significant contributors to the reduction in MMR. However, evidences on the impact of hospital bed supply as well as how its distribution inequality has affected MMR remains scarce in China. Addressing this uncertainty is essential to understand whether efforts made on the expansion of healthcare resource supply as well as on improving its distribution inequality from a geographical perspective has the potential to produce measurable population health improvements. METHODS: Panel data of 31 provinces in China between 2004 and 2016 were extracted from the national statistical data, including China Statistical Yearbooks, China Health Statistical Yearbooks and other national publications. We firstly described the changes in hospital bed density as well as its distribution inequality from a geographical perspective. Then, a linear mixed model was employed to evaluate the impact of hospital bed supply as well as its distribution inequality on MMR at the provincial level. RESULTS: The MMR decreased substantially from 48.3 to 19.9 deaths per 100,000 live births between 2004 and 2016. The average hospital bed density increased from 2.28 per 1000 population in 2004 to 4.54 per 1000 population in 2016, with the average Gini coefficient reducing from 0.32 to 0.25. As indicated by the adjusted mixed-effects regressions, hospital bed density had a negative association with MMR (ß = - 0.112, 95% CI: - 0.210--0.013) while every 0.1-unit reduction of Gini coefficient suggested 14.50% decline in MMR on average (ß = 1.354, 95% CI: 0.123-2.584). Based on the mediation analysis, the association between hospital bed density or Gini coefficient with MMR was found to be significantly mediated by facility birth rate, especially during the period from 2004 to 2009. CONCLUSIONS: This study provided empirical evidences on China's impressive success in the aspect of reducing MMR which could be attributed to the expansion of hospital beds as well as the improvement in its distribution inequality from a geographical perspective. Such findings were expected to provide evidence-based implications for long-term policy-making procedures in order to achieve rational healthcare resource allocations as well as promoting the equity and accessibility to obtaining health care from a holistic perspective. Constant efforts should be made on improving the equity in healthcare resource allocations in order to achieve the penetration of universal healthcare coverage.

US State Government Crisis Standards of Care Guidelines: Implications for Patients With Cancer.

Importance: State crisis standards of care (CSC) guidelines in the US allocate scarce health care resources among patients. Anecdotal reports suggest that guidelines may disproportionately allocate resources away from patients with cancer, but no comprehensive evaluation has been performed. Objective: To examine the implications of US state CSC guidelines for patients with cancer, including allocation methods, cancer-related categorical exclusions and deprioritizations, and provisions for blood products and palliative care. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cross-sectional population-based analysis examined state-endorsed CSC guidelines published before May 20, 2020, that included health care resource allocation recommendations. Main Outcomes and Measures: Guideline publication before or within 120 days after the first documented US case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), inclusion of cancer-related categorical exclusions and/or deprioritizations, provisions for blood products and/or palliative care, and associations between these outcomes and state-based cancer demographics. Results: Thirty-one states had health care resource allocation guidelines that met inclusion criteria, of which 17 had been published or updated since the first US case of COVID-19. States whose available hospital bed capacity was predicted to exceed 100% at 6 months (χ2 = 3.82; P = .05) or that had a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC; χ2 = 6.21; P = .01) were more likely to have publicly available guidelines. The most frequent primary methods of prioritization were the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score (27 states [87%]) and deprioritizing persons with worse long-term prognoses (22 states [71%]). Seventeen states' (55%) allocation methods included cancer-related deprioritizations, and 8 states (26%) included cancer-related categorical exclusions. The presence of an in-state CCC was associated with lower likelihood of cancer-related categorical exclusions (multivariable odds ratio, 0.06 [95% CI, 0.004-0.87]). Guidelines with disability rights statements were associated with specific provisions to allocate blood products (multivariable odds ratio, 7.44 [95% CI, 1.28-43.24). Both the presence of an in-state CCC and having an oncologist and/or palliative care specialist on the state CSC task force were associated with the inclusion of palliative care provisions. Conclusions and Relevance: Among states with CSC guidelines, most deprioritized some patients with cancer during resource allocation, and one-fourth categorically excluded them. The presence of an in-state CCC was associated with guideline availability, palliative care provisions, and lower odds of cancer-related exclusions. These data suggest that equitable state-level CSC considerations for patients with cancer benefit from the input of oncology stakeholders.

Capacity of intensive care units in Ghana.

PURPOSE: To document the equipment, resource and bed capacity of Intensive Care Units (ICUs) in the Republic of Ghana. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Cross-sectional observational study of all operating ICUs in Ghana. Sixteen operating ICUs in 9 hospitals were identified and surveyed (13 adult and 3 pediatric ICUs). RESULTS: There were a total of 113 adult and 36 pediatric ICU beds for a population of 30 million, (0.5 ICU beds per 100,000 people). The median number of staffed ICU beds and ventilators were 5 (IQR 4-6), and 4 (IQR 3-5) respectively. There were 2 pediatric and 6 adult intensivists practicing in the country. About half of the ICUs (56%) were staffed solely by non-intensivist providers. While there is adequate nursing support and availability of essential critical care medications, the current financing model for critical care delivery creates a significant barrier for most patients. CONCLUSION: Ghana has a significant shortage of critical care beds that are inequitably distributed across the country and a shortfall of intensivists to staff ICUs. A holistic approach that focuses on the key bottlenecks to quality improvement would be required to improve the capacity and quality of critical care delivery.

The impact of an integrated heart failure service in a medium-sized district general hospital.

OBJECTIVES: Assessing the impact of a new integrated heart failure service (IHFS) in a medium-sized district general hospital (DGH) on heart failure (HF) mortality, readmission rates, and provision of HF care. METHODS: A retrospective, observational study encompassing all patients admitted with a diagnosis of HF over two 12-month periods before (2012/2013), and after (2015/2016) IHFS establishment. RESULTS: Total admissions for HF increased by 40% (385 vs 540), with a greater number admitted to the cardiology ward (231 vs 121). After IHFS implementation, patients were more likely to see a cardiologist (35.1% vs 43.7%, p=0.009), undergo echocardiography (70.1% vs 81.5%, p<0.001), be initiated on all three disease modifying HF medications (angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi), angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARB) and mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRA)) in the heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) group (42% vs 99%, p<0.001) and receive specialist HF input (81.6% vs 85.4%, p=0.2). Both 30-day post-discharge mortality and HF related readmissions were significantly lower in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) (8.9% vs 3.1%, p=0.032, 58% reduction, p=0.043 respectively) with no-significant reductions in all other HF groups. In-patient mortality was similar. Length of stay in Cardiology wards increased from 8.4 to 12.7 days (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Establishment of an IHFS within a DGH with limited resources and only a modest service re-design has resulted in significantly improved provision of specialist in-patient care, use of HFrEF medications, early heart failure nurse follow-up, and is associated with a reduction in early mortality, particularly in the HFpEF cohort, and HF related readmissions.

Interventional oncology at the time of COVID-19 pandemic: Problems and solutions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has deeply impacted the activity of interventional oncology in hospitals and cancer centers. In this review based on official recommendations of different international societies, but also on local solutions found in different expert large-volume centers, we discuss the changes that need to be done for the organization, safety, and patient management in interventional oncology. A literature review of potential solutions in a context of scarce anesthesiologic resources, limited staff and limited access to hospital beds are proposed and discussed based on the literature data.

The Association Between Stroke Mortality and Time of Admission and Participation in a Telestroke Network.

OBJECTIVES: Acute ischemic stroke is one of the leading causes of death. Patient outcomes, such as in-patient mortality, may be impacted by the time of arrival to the hospital. Telestroke networks have been found to be effective and safe at treating acute ischemic strokes. This paper investigated the association between mortality and time of arrival and hospital's participation in a telestroke network. METHODS: Data were collected on ischemic stroke patients who arrived at 15 nonteaching hospitals in Georgia's Paul Coverdell Acute stroke registry from 2009 to 2016. After controlling for patient and hospital characteristics, multivariate logistic regression was conducted to assess whether time of arrival and telestroke participation was associated with in-hospital mortality. Subgroup analysis was conducted based on hospital bed size. RESULTS: Overall, a total of 19,759 admissions for acute ischemic stroke were included in this analysis. The odds of dying in the hospital when arriving during the nighttime are 1.22 times the odds of dying when arriving during the day (95% CI: 1.04-1.45) and the odds of dying at a telestroke hospital are 53% lower than at a nontelestroke hospital (OR .47, 95% CI .31-.71). The associations were more prominent in large hospitals. CONCLUSIONS: Our study found that the hour of arrival for acute ischemic stroke is linked with in-hospital mortality in large hospitals, with patients more likely to die if they arrive during the nighttime hours as compared to the daytime hours. Telestroke participation is linked with lower odds of hospital mortality in all hospitals.

Austerity, healthcare provision, and health outcomes in Spain.

The recession that started in the United States in December 2007 has had a significant impact on the Spanish economy through a large increase in the unemployment rate and a long recession which led to tough austerity measures imposed on public finances. Taking advantage of this quasi-natural experiment, we use data from the Spanish Ministry of Health from 1996 to 2015 to provide novel causal evidence on the short-term impact of changes in healthcare provision and regulations on health outcomes. The fact that regional governments have discretionary powers in deciding healthcare budgets and that austerity measures have not been implemented uniformly across Spain helps isolate the impact of these policy changes on health indicators of the Spanish population. Using Ruhm's (Q J Econ 115(2):617-650, 2000) fixed effects model, we find that medical staff and hospital bed reductions account for a significant increase in mortality rates from circulatory diseases and external causes, but not from other causes of death. Similarly, mortality rates do not seem to be robustly affected by the 2012 changes in retirees' pharmaceutical co-payments and access restrictions for illegal immigrants. Our results are robust to changes in model specification and sample selection and are primarily driven by accidental and emergency deaths rather than in-hospital mortality, which suggests a larger role for decreases in accessibility rather than decreases in healthcare quality as impact channels.

Lessons learned from the fight against COVID-19 in the Great Maghreb.Five lessons for better resilience.

OBJECTIVE: To compile the lessons learned in the Greater Maghreb, during the first six months of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, in the field of "capacity building" of community resilience. METHODS: An expert consultation was conducted during the first week of May 2020, using the "Delphi" technique. An email was sent requesting the formulation of a lesson, in the form of a "Public Health" good practice recommendation. The final text of the lessons was finalized by the group coordinator and validated by the signatories of the manuscript. RESULTS: A list of five lessons of resilience has been deduced and approved : 1. Elaboration of "white plans" for epidemic management; 2. Training in epidemic management; 3. Uniqueness of the health system command; 4. Mobilization of retirees and volunteers; 5. Revision of the map sanitary. CONCLUSION: Based on the evaluation of the performance of the Maghreb fight against COVID-19, characterized by low resilience, this list of lessons could constitute a roadmap for the reform of Maghreb health systems, towards more performance to manage possible waves of COVID-19 or new emerging diseases with epidemic tendency.

Impact of Health System Affiliation on Hospital Resource Use Intensity and Quality of Care.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of hospital affiliation, centralization, and managed care plan ownership on inpatient cost and quality. DATA SOURCES: Inpatient discharges from 3,957 community hospitals in 44 states and American Hospital Association Annual Survey data from 2010 to 2012. STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a retrospective longitudinal regression analysis using hierarchical modeling of discharges clustered within hospitals. DATA COLLECTION: Detailed discharge data including costs, length of stay, and patient characteristics from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Inpatient Databases were merged with hospital survey data from the American Hospital Association. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Hospitals affiliated with health systems had a higher cost per discharge and better quality of care compared with independent hospitals. Centralized systems in particular had the highest cost per discharge and longest stays. Independent hospitals with managed care plans had a higher cost per discharge and better quality of care compared with other independent hospitals. CONCLUSIONS: Increasing prevalence of health systems and hospital managed care ownership may lead to higher quality but are unlikely to reduce hospital discharge costs. Encouraging participation in innovative payment and delivery reform models, such as accountable care organizations, may be more powerful options.

Shortening gestational age at term and organisation of birth care in the Czech Republic.

A trend of the shortening duration of pregnancies carried to term has been observed in several countries and represents a growing public health concern. This paper describes the trend in the Czech Republic and shows its relation to the changing demographic structure of mothers and the organisation of maternity care. Data from the birth register are used and supplemented with information about the capacity of maternity care (number of beds at maternity clinics, number of obstetricians and midwives). Logistic regression is used to estimate the odds of 37 to 39 vs 40+ completed weeks of gestation. The results show that the average gestational age at term decreased by 2.1 days between 2000 and 2013. The odds of 37 to 39 weeks of gestational duration increased, mainly due to the reduction in the number of beds at maternity clinics (adjusted odds ratio of 1.51). The effects of the number of health care staff members were weaker. The number of midwives positively influenced gestational duration, while the number of obstetricians had a negative effect. Maternal demographic structure cannot explain the trend. A likely explanation is the increased use of planned early term caesarean sections.

Curar y custodiar. La cronicidad en el manicomio La Castañeda, Ciudad de México, 1910-1968 / Cure ande guard. Chronicity in insane Asylum La Castañeda, Mexico city, 1910-1968

El artículo cuestiona el binomio que asocia la cronicidad y la incurabilidad de las enfermedades mentales con el custodialismo del manicomio mediante un estudio de caso, el Manicomio La Castañeda de México, 1910-1968. Se contrastan los discursos sobre la cura y la cronicidad que elaboraron los psiquiatras mexicanos y las tendencias estadísticas de los pacientes ingresados: nuevas admisiones, reingresos, altas, duración de la estancia y diagnósticos a la luz de los nuevos tratamientos. Concluye que para los médicos, la función terapéutica del manicomio se vio muy golpeada por la cronicidad y la sobrepoblación, pero según las estadísticas, el 80% de los pacientes sólo tuvo un ingreso con una internación de 15 meses y las largas estancias de los que reingresaron no impactaron estadísticamente; las dos terceras partes de los enfermos salieron del manicomio, y desde los años cincuenta en el contexto de las nuevas terapéuticas (AU)

The article questions the binomial that associates the chronicity and incurability of mental illness with the custodialism of the asylum through a case study, Asylum La Castañeda in Mexico, from 1910 to 1968. We contrast the discourses about the cure and chronicity constructed by Mexican psychiatrists and the statistical trends of patients admitted: new admissions, readmissions, discharges, length of stay, and diagnoses in the light of new treatments. We concluded that according to the doctors, the asylum therapeutic function was severely affected by chronicity and overpopulation, but according to statistics, 80% of the patients had only one admission with a 15-month hospitalization and the long-term confinement rates of readmissions did not impact statistically; two-thirds of the patients left the asylum, and since the 1950s in the context of new therapeutics (AU)

Analysis of Italian regulations on pathways of care for patients in a vegetative or minimally conscious state.

Different rehabilitation models for persons diagnosed with disorders of consciousness have been proposed in Europe during the last decade. In Italy, the Ministry of Health has defined a national healthcare model, although, to date, there is a lack of information on how this has been implemented at regional level. The INCARICO project collected information on different regional regulations, analysing ethical aspects and mapping care facilities (numbers of beds and medical units) in eleven regional territories. The researchers found a total of 106 laws; differences emerged both between regions and versus the national model, showing that patients with the same diagnosis may follow different pathways of care. An ongoing cultural shift from a treatment-oriented medical approach towards a care-oriented integrated biopsychosocial approach was found in all the welfare and healthcare systems analysed. Future studies are needed to explore the relationship between healthcare systems and the quality of services provided.

[Acute Care Rehabilitation is the First Link in a Chain of Rehabilitation Interventions]. / Frührehabilitation ist erstes Glied einer nahtlosen Rehabilitationskette.

An early, intensive rehabilitative therapy accelerates the recovery of the functions of patients. It contributes to a reduction in the complication rate as well as an improvement in physical and social functioning/participation in the long-term follow-up. Early rehabilitation must be strengthened on the basis of the existing structures: the creation and maintenance of adequately qualified early-stage rehabilitation facilities, at least in hospitals with priority and maximum supply contracts. Patients with long-term intensive care and polytrauma must be rehabilitated as soon as possible (intensive medical rehabilitation).Specialists in physical and rehabilitative medicine, rehabilitative geriatrists, neurologists, orthopaedists and accident surgeons and other regional physicians must cooperate in a targeted manner. Exclusion criteria using corresponding OPS codes must be canceled. Additional specialist physician groups (anesthetists and intensive care physicians, general practitioners, accident and thoracic surgeons, internists) must be sensitized to the importance of early rehabilitation.In the case of more than 500,000 hospital beds, 25,000 beds should be identified as age- and diagnosis-independent early-care beds in the country-specific bed-care plans. A cost-covering financing of the different, personal and cost-intensive early rehabilitation must be ensured. A phase model similar to the BAR guidelines for neurological-neurosurgical early rehabilitation is to be considered for other disease entities.In order to make the rehabilitation process as successful as possible, medical (acute) treatment, medical rehabilitation, occupational integration and social integration have to be understood as a holistic event and are effectively interrelated, as a continuous process which accompanies the entire disease phase-wise. For this purpose, a continuous case management or a rehabilitation guidance has to be established.

The importance of the patients deemed not guilty by reason of insanity for the psychiatric reform.

According to the Greek Penal Law if someone "because of a morbid disturbance of his mental functioning" (article 34) is acquitted of a crime or misdemeanour that the law punishes with more than 6 months imprisonment, then the court orders that this individual should be kept in a public psychiatric institution if the court reaches the conclusion that this person poses a threat to public safety.1 Individuals who have broken the law and deemed "not guilty by reason of insanity" are treated in psychiatric units of Psychiatric Hospitals according to the article 69 of the Penal Code. In Athens, in the Psychiatric Hospital of Athens and the Dromokaiteion Psychiatric Hospital, and in Thessaloniki in the Unit for "Not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI)". The person who is deemed not guilty by reason of insanity following a crime is facing double stigmatisation and marginalisation from both the legal and the health system. He/she is usually treated initially with fear and later since there is no therapeutic aim but only the court instruction for "guardianship", with indifference. The patient who is committed by the courts in a psychiatric unit for being "NGRI" is facing a unique legal and psychiatric status.2 In this respect he/she is disadvantaged when compared to either convicted criminals or psychiatric inpatients. If the patient was not found "NGRI" (ie innocent as far as sentencing is concerned) he would have been punished with loss of liberty for a certain (specific) amount of time, and like all individuals convicted in court he/she would have the right to appeal and reduce his/her sentence in a higher court and maybe released from prison earlier for good behaviour etc. In this respect the individual found to be "NGRI" is disadvantaged when compared to a convicted felon since he/she is kept for an undefined period of time. Additionally, he/she will be allowed to leave the psychiatric unit following a subjective assessment of a judge with no psychiatric knowledge who will decide that this certain individual has "ceased to be dangerous". These problems are accentuated by the difficulties that the Greek justice system is facing. On the other side, from the psychiatric point of view, the "NGRI" patient who is an inpatient is not receiving the holistic, (bio psycho social) treatment and assessment of needs he/she requires. The psychiatric team looking after him, once the acute symptomatology is controlled is just getting used to a patient who will not be discharged in the immediate future. These patients form the "new chronic asylum psychiatric inpatients" for whom the treating psychiatrists are not allowed to discharge back into the community whilst it is unclear whether they can be transferred to supported rehabilitation units. It is a medical but also legal paradox to assign to contemporary psychiatric units aiming mainly to treat patients in the community to "keep and guard" inpatients whilst these psychiatric units should focus on care and rehabilitation of the patients (including the "NGRIs").3 Keeping patients like these in psychiatric units creates problems in the functioning of the units. These patients are "kept" in acute beds for long periods of time (5 to 6 years minimum) with patients treated voluntarily or against their will and cannot be discharged without a court's decision. The problems are obvious if one realises that the average time of hospitalisation is not exceeding 2 months for the vast majority of psychiatric patients. With the prolonged stay patients of the "article 69" (NGRIs) they not only burden the already limited resources (there is an established lack of psychiatric beds nationwide) but also this prolonged hospitalisation increases their stigmatisation and marginalisation. Thus the prolonged hospitalisation for "safety" reasons according to the court decision leads to the absence of a therapeutic aim other than maintaining the patient on the ward. Greece has agreed that there is an urgent need in developing community psychiatry services and closure/transformation of the big psychiatric hospitals (asylums). It is impossible to close hospitals where "NGRIs" are kept. The decision to move them into the community is not a medical-psychiatric but a legal one. In this respect it is imperative to establish a Forensic Psychiatric Unit for these patients. In our country as the "Psychargos" external evaluation highlighted, there are great gaps in the provision of Forensic psychiatric services.3 It must be emphasised that these gaps affect negatively psychiatric reform and social reintegration not only for the forensic psychiatric patients but for the whole of mentally ill individuals. Given that forensic Psychiatric services are developed in Athens and Thessaloniki and that training in Forensic Psychiatry has moved forward, it is imperative that the state should build upon the existing knowledge and experience and create specialist forensic units aiming to treat and rehabilitate this special and important group of patients.4 Only when the patients found "not guilty by reasons of insanity" have their own (safe for the society and them) therapeutic and rehabilitative services the aim of de-institutionalisation will be visible and realistic to implement.

Difficulties in access and estimates of public beds in intensive care units in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the required number of public beds for adults in intensive care units in the state of Rio de Janeiro to meet the existing demand and compare results with recommendations by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. METHODS: The study uses a hybrid model combining time series and queuing theory to predict the demand and estimate the number of required beds. Four patient flow scenarios were considered according to bed requests, percentage of abandonments and average length of stay in intensive care unit beds. The results were plotted against Ministry of Health parameters. Data were obtained from the State Regulation Center from 2010 to 2011. RESULTS: There were 33,101 medical requests for 268 regulated intensive care unit beds in Rio de Janeiro. With an average length of stay in regulated ICUs of 11.3 days, there would be a need for 595 active beds to ensure system stability and 628 beds to ensure a maximum waiting time of six hours. Deducting current abandonment rates due to clinical improvement (25.8%), these figures fall to 441 and 417. With an average length of stay of 6.5 days, the number of required beds would be 342 and 366, respectively; deducting abandonment rates, 254 and 275. The Brazilian Ministry of Health establishes a parameter of 118 to 353 beds. Although the number of regulated beds is within the recommended range, an increase in beds of 122.0% is required to guarantee system stability and of 134.0% for a maximum waiting time of six hours. CONCLUSIONS: Adequate bed estimation must consider reasons for limited timely access and patient flow management in a scenario that associates prioritization of requests with the lowest average length of stay.