Atif Mahmood.
Association between ICU Admissions during Night and Mortality.
Pak J Med Health Sci Jan ;6(4):880-1.

Aim: To determine the association between admissions to the ICU during the night and patient outcome. Method: The study included 3242 patients admitted between January 2005 to December 2010 to ICU. Of these patients 821 were admitted to ICU between 10pm to 8am. The ICU had an in house senior doctor during the last 2 years of study and we were able to compare the difference in mortality in these 2 years with the previous 3 years when there was no senior doctor during the night. Conclusion: Patients admitted during the night had much higher severity of disease and mortality. In addition to requiring high quality infrastructure and equipments there were equally important other quality indicators including physician staffing, nurse patient ratio. Initial management in emergency department and ICU had major outcome in patient’s mortality. Also during last 2 years of study appointment of in house senior registrar during night resulted in 12% reduction in mortality during this period. As all over the world the ICU beds are going to increase in Pakistan and we need to look into all these issues to improve the quality of care.

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