Outcomes of patients admitted to tertiary intensive care units after interhospital transfer: comparison with patients admitted from emergency departments.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To compare outcomes of patients admitted to tertiary-level intensive care units after interhospital transfer (IHT) with those of similar patients admitted from the emergency department (ED). DESIGN: Historical case-control study using data from the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society Adult Patient Database (ANZICS APD), a quality-assurance dataset. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: 28882 patients aged 16 years or older admitted to an adult tertiary ICU in Australia or New Zealand between 1 January 1994 and 31 December 2003 with one of the eight most common diagnoses for IHT patients. Patients admitted directly to the ICU from another hospital (DIHT group) (n=9203) were matc..