Association between intensive care unit occupancy at discharge, afterhours discharges, and clinical outcomes: a historical cohort study

Purpose There is a paucity of evidence evaluating whether intensive care unit (ICU) discharge occupancy is associated with clinical outcomes. It is unknown whether increased discharge occupancy leads to greater afterhours discharges and downstream consequences. We explore the association between ICU discharge occupancy and afterhours discharges, 72-hr readmission, and 30-day mortality. Methods This single-centre, historical cohort study included all patients discharged from the Vancouver General Hospital ICU between 5 April 2010 and 13 September 2017. Data were obtained from the British Columbia Critical Care Database. Occupancy was defined as the number of ICU bed hours utilized divided by the available bed hours for that day. Any discharge between 22:00 and 6:59 was considered afterhours. Logistic regression models adjusting for important covariates were constructed. Results We included 8,862 ICU discharges representing 7,288 individual patients. There were 1,180 (13.3%) afterhours discharges, 408 (4.6%) 72-hr readmissions, and 574 (6.5%) 30-day post-discharge deaths. Greater discharge occupancy was associated with afterhours discharges (per 10% increase: adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.12; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03 to 1.20;P= 0.005). Discharge occupancy was not associated with 72-hr readmission (per 10% increase: aOR, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.87 to 1.09;P= 0.62) or 30-day mortality (per 10% increase: aOR, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.95 to 1.16;P= 0.32). Afterhours discharge was not associated with 72-hr readmission (aOR, 1.15; 95% CI, 0.86 to 1.54;P= 0.34) or 30-day mortality (aOR, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.82 to 1.36;P= 0.69). Conclusions Greater ICU discharge occupancy was associated with a significant increase in afterhours discharges. Nevertheless, neither discharge occupancy nor afterhours discharge were associated with 72-hr readmission or 30-day mortality.