Effect of Boarding on Mortality in ICUs.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Hospitals use a variety of strategies to maximize the availability of limited ICU beds. Boarding, which involves assigning patients to an open bed in a different subspecialty ICU, is one such practice employed when ICU occupancy levels are high, and beds in a particular unit are unavailable. Boarding disrupts the normal geographic colocation of patients and care teams, exposing patients to nursing staff with different training and expertise to those caring for nonboarders. We analyzed whether medical ICU patients boarding in alternative specialty ICUs are at increased risk of mortality.

Design

Retrospective cohort study using an instrumental variable analysis to control for unmeasured confounding. A semiparametric bivariate probit estimation strategy was employed

SUBMITTER: Stretch R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5851814 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature