A shocking admission: patient exclusion from intensive care therapy

Quantitative description of intensive care unit (ICU) triage practice.

Prospective audit of patients refused access to the Waikato ICU over a one year period.

For the period August 2003 to September 2004, 280 referrals to the ICU were refused. Ninety five referrals (34%) were refused on the grounds that the patient would be too sick to benefit from ICU treatment, and 124 (44%) were considered too well. Sixty one referrals were declined on the basis that there was insufficient resource (beds or nurses).

In our hospital a significant number of patients referred for intensive care therapy are refused access. Triage occurs as a result of resource limitation and/or because the patient is seen as too sick or too well to benefit. Despite this being part of our daily practice, it has been, to date, poorly quantified. Until the process is demystified it cannot be understood or debated by doctors, the public and political figures.