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Annals of Intensive Care

Table 1 Baseline patient data and characteristics of the referring ICU

From: Intensive care unit to unit capacity transfers are associated with increased mortality: an observational cohort study on patient transfers in the Swedish Intensive Care Register

  Repatriation n = 2401 Clinical transfers n = 7014 Capacity transfers n = 1761
Age, years mean (SD) 60.3 (17.9) 55.5 (18.9) 63.1 (16.4)
Male, n (%) 1536 (64.0) 4119 (58.7) 1097 (62.3)
Year of admission, n (% within year)    
 2016 747 (19.9) 2443 (65.1) 565 (15.1)
 2017 811 (22.2) 2282 (62.4) 563 (15.4)
 2018 843 (22.4) 2289 (60.8) 633 (16.8)
Hospital category of referring ICU, n (% of category)    
 Local hospital 368 (15.3) 2819 (40.2) 165 (9.4)
 District general hospital 623 (26.0) 2905 (41.4) 475 (27.0)
 Tertiary care hospital 1410 (58.7) 1290 (18.4) 1121 (63.7)
Time in hospital before ICU admission days, mean (SD) 2.7 (8.8) 1.6 (20.5) 3.0 (8.3)
Length of stay on referring ICU, hours; median (IQR) 47.6 (21.8–107.9) 11.8 (3.1–32.0) 48.2 (16.1–125.8)
Source of admission to referring ICU, n (% within category)    
 Emergency room 771 (32.1) 4548 (64.8) 699 (39.7)
 Theatre or PACU 425 (17.7) 457 (6.5) 236 (13.4)
 Ward 441 (18.4) 1654 (23.6) 696 (39.5)
 Other hospital or ICU 721 (30.0) 270 (3.9) 119 (6.8)
 Other source 43 (1.8) 85 (1.2) 11 (0.6)
Surgical status on referring ICU, n (% within category)    
 Elective surgery 193 (8.0) 164 (2.3) 107 (6.1)
 Emergency surgery 440 (18.3) 475 (6.8) 223 (12.7)
 Without surgery 1768 (73.6) 6375 (90.9) 1431 (81.3)
Illness severity (SAPS3) on admission to referring ICU, score, mean (SD)a    
 SAPS3 score Box 1 7.9 (4.7) 7.0 (3.8) 8.3 (4.8)
 SAPS3 score Box 2 27.7 (5.6) 27.7 (4.7) 28.5 (5.2)
 SAPS3 score Box 3 12.4 (10.1) 10.8 (9.9) 16.9 (10.1)
 SAPS3 total 56.9 (14.7) 53.0 (14.5) 63.5 (14.6)
SOFA-score at discharge, mean (SD)b 4.9 (3.5) 6.0 (4.1) 6.5 (3.6)
Time and day of discharge, n (% of category)    
 Night-time discharge 112 (4.7) 1289 (18.4) 333 (18.9)
 Weekend discharge 467 (19.5) 1777 (25.3) 394 (22.4)
Mortality    
 30 days after ICU discharge, n (%) 390 (16.2) 1027 (14.6) 441 (25.0)
 180 days after ICU discharge, n (%) 561 (23.4) 1468 (20.9) 584 (33.2)
  1. a See Methods for SAPS3 boxes
  2. bThe number of admissions with SOFA scores were for repatriation 622, clinical transfers 659 and capacity transfers 531
  3. cFor ICD-10 codes included in disease groups please see Additional file 1: Table S1
  4. PACU: post-anaesthesia care unit; SAPS3: Simplified Acute Physiology Score version 3; SOFA: Sequential Organ Failure Assessment; ICH: intracranial haemorrhage; COPD: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; ICU: intensive care unit
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