Factors Associated With Early Readmission in Critical Care

The COVID-19 health crisis has highlighted pre-existing challenges in patient flow management within healthcare facilities, especially in critical care units. This has sparked debate regarding the sufficiency of critical care beds in France, while drawing attention to the lack of downstream structures. Inefficient patient flow, leading to bed occupancy bottlenecks, has been correlated with both critical care length of stay and morbidity. Unplanned early readmission to critical care further exacerbates these strains and prolongs hospital length of stay. Currently, no standardized criteria are available to guide safe discharge from critical care. A recent Delphi consensus study proposed a set of criteria, although largely subjective. The primary outcome of the present study is to identify factors associated with unplanned early readmission to critical care within 48 hours of discharge. Delayed discharge from critical care represents another major bottleneck contributing to system strain. The secondary outcome of this study is therefore to assess the proportion of critical care beds occupied by patients deemed ready for discharge by the medical team, as well as to analyze the reasons underlying such delayed transfers.