tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
BMJ Open
. 2024 May 9;14(5):e079022.
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-079022. Did COVID-19 ICU patient mortality risk increase as Colorado hospitals filled? A retrospective cohort study
David R Johnson[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Debashis Ghosh[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Brandie D Wagner[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Elizabeth J Carlton[SUP] 3 [/SUP]
Affiliations
Objectives: To assess whether increasing levels of hospital stress-measured by intensive care unit (ICU) bed occupancy (primary), ventilators in use and emergency department (ED) overflow-were associated with decreasing COVID-19 ICU patient survival in Colorado ICUs during the pre-Delta, Delta and Omicron variant eras.
Design: A retrospective cohort study using discrete-time survival models, fit with generalised estimating equations.
Setting: 34 hospital systems in Colorado, USA, with the highest patient volume ICUs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Participants: 9196 non-paediatric SARS-CoV-2 patients in Colorado hospitals admitted once to an ICU between 1 August 2020 and 1 March 2022 and followed for 28 days.
Outcome measures: Death or discharge to hospice.
Results: For Delta-era COVID-19 ICU patients in Colorado, the odds of death were estimated to be 26% greater for patients exposed every day of their ICU admission to a facility experiencing its all-era 75th percentile ICU fullness or above, versus patients exposed for none of their days (OR: 1.26; 95% CI: 1.04 to 1.54; p=0.0102), adjusting for age, sex, length of ICU stay, vaccination status and hospital quality rating. For both Delta-era and Omicron-era patients, we also detected significantly increased mortality hazard associated with high ventilator utilisation rates and (in a subset of facilities) states of ED overflow. For pre-Delta-era patients, we estimated relatively null or even protective effects for the same fullness exposures, something which provides a meaningful contrast to previous studies that found increased hazards but were limited to pre-Delta study windows.
Conclusions: Overall, and especially during the Delta era (when most Colorado facilities were at their fullest), increasing exposure to a fuller hospital was associated with an increasing mortality hazard for COVID-19 ICU patients.
Keywords: Adult intensive & critical care; COVID-19; Epidemiology; Public health; SARS-CoV-2 Infection.
. 2024 May 9;14(5):e079022.
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-079022. Did COVID-19 ICU patient mortality risk increase as Colorado hospitals filled? A retrospective cohort study
David R Johnson[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Debashis Ghosh[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Brandie D Wagner[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Elizabeth J Carlton[SUP] 3 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 38724053
- DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-079022
Objectives: To assess whether increasing levels of hospital stress-measured by intensive care unit (ICU) bed occupancy (primary), ventilators in use and emergency department (ED) overflow-were associated with decreasing COVID-19 ICU patient survival in Colorado ICUs during the pre-Delta, Delta and Omicron variant eras.
Design: A retrospective cohort study using discrete-time survival models, fit with generalised estimating equations.
Setting: 34 hospital systems in Colorado, USA, with the highest patient volume ICUs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Participants: 9196 non-paediatric SARS-CoV-2 patients in Colorado hospitals admitted once to an ICU between 1 August 2020 and 1 March 2022 and followed for 28 days.
Outcome measures: Death or discharge to hospice.
Results: For Delta-era COVID-19 ICU patients in Colorado, the odds of death were estimated to be 26% greater for patients exposed every day of their ICU admission to a facility experiencing its all-era 75th percentile ICU fullness or above, versus patients exposed for none of their days (OR: 1.26; 95% CI: 1.04 to 1.54; p=0.0102), adjusting for age, sex, length of ICU stay, vaccination status and hospital quality rating. For both Delta-era and Omicron-era patients, we also detected significantly increased mortality hazard associated with high ventilator utilisation rates and (in a subset of facilities) states of ED overflow. For pre-Delta-era patients, we estimated relatively null or even protective effects for the same fullness exposures, something which provides a meaningful contrast to previous studies that found increased hazards but were limited to pre-Delta study windows.
Conclusions: Overall, and especially during the Delta era (when most Colorado facilities were at their fullest), increasing exposure to a fuller hospital was associated with an increasing mortality hazard for COVID-19 ICU patients.
Keywords: Adult intensive & critical care; COVID-19; Epidemiology; Public health; SARS-CoV-2 Infection.