The relationship between in-house attending coverage and nighttime extubation following congenital heart surgery*

Many cardiac ICUs have instituted 24/7 attending physician in-house coverage, which theoretically may allow for more expeditious weaning from ventilation and extubation. We aimed to determine whether this staffing strategy impacts rates of nighttime extubation and duration of mechanical ventilation.

National data were obtained from the Virtual PICU System database for all patients admitted to the cardiac ICU following congenital heart surgery in 2011 who required postoperative mechanical ventilation. Contemporaneous data from our local institution were collected in addition to the Virtual PICU System data. The combined dataset (n = 2,429) was divided based on the type of nighttime staffing model in order to compare rates of nighttime extubation and duration of mechanical ventilation between units that used an in-house attending staffing strategy and those that employed nighttime residents, fellows, or midlevel providers only.

Institutions that currently use 24/7 in-house attending coverage did not demonstrate statistically significant differences in rates of nighttime extubation or the duration of mechanical ventilation in comparison to units without in-house attendings. Younger patients cared for in non-in-house attending units were more likely to require reintubation.

Pediatric patients who have undergone congenital heart surgery can be safely and effectively extubated without the routine presence of an attending physician. The utilization of nighttime in-house attending coverage does not appear to have significant benefits on the rate of nighttime extubation and may not reduce the duration of mechanical ventilation in units that already use in-house residents, fellows, or other midlevel providers.