PEDIATRICS Vol. 80 No. 6 December 1987, pp. 855-860
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Long-Stay Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Patients: Outcome and Resource Utilization

Murray M. Pollack MD1, James D. Wilkinson MD1, and Nancy L. Glass MD1

1 From the Departments of Anesthesiology (Division of Critical Care) and Child Health and Development, Children's Hospital National Medical Center and George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC

Outcome, resource utilization, and health care characteristics of patients staying in a multidisciplinary pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) for more than 13 days (long-stay patients) were analyzed. Of 647 children admitted consecutively, 46 were long-stay patients. Compared with short-stay patients, long-stay patients were significantly younger and sicker and had a higher incidence of chronic disease. Most important, long-stay patients had significantly higher PICU mortality rates (17.4% v 7.3%, P < .05) and hospital mortality rates (23.9% v 8.7%, P < .01) than short-stay PICU patients. Although only 7.1% of the patient sample, long-stay patients consumed approximately 50% of all PICU resources. One-year follow-up on those long-stay patients surviving their hospitalization revealed that 58% had died or were severely disabled. Long-stay patients had relatively poor prognoses and consumed health care resources in excess of their numeric proportions.

Key Words: intensive care unit • health care cost

Submitted on January 2, 1987
Accepted on April 27, 1987