Validity of unplanned admission to an intensive care unit as a measure of patient safety in surgical patients.
Based on a recommended clinical indicator in surgical patients, this study used a cohort of more than 44,000 to identify 200 patients who experienced an unplanned postoperative admission to an intensive care unit. Investigators discovered that more than half of these patients experienced at least one incident or near miss and that their mortality rates and lengths of stay were significantly increased, while their likelihood for discharge was decreased. The authors conclude that this methodology may serve as an important tool to promote patient safety by generating data that do not require complex risk-adjustment models and rely on more easily obtainable information from a medical chart.