The Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic on U.S. and Canadian PICUs

There are limited reports of the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic focused on U.S. and Canadian PICUs. This hypothesis-generating report aims to identify the United States and Canadian trends of coronavirus disease 2019 in PICUs.

To better understand how the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic was affecting U.S. and Canadian PICUs, an open voluntary daily data collection process of Canadian and U.S. PICUs was initiated by Virtual Pediatric Systems, LLC (Los Angeles, CA; http://www.myvps.org) in mid-March 2020. Information was made available online to all PICUs wishing to participate. A secondary data collection was performed to follow-up on patients discharged from those PICUs reporting coronavirus disease 2019 positive patients.

To date, over 180 PICUs have responded detailing 530 PICU admissions requiring over 3,467 days of PICU care with 30 deaths. The preponderance of cases was in the eastern regions. Twenty-four percent of the patients admitted to the PICUs were over 18 years old. Fourteen percent of admissions were under 2 years old. Nearly 60% of children had comorbidities at admission with the average length of stay increasing by age and by severity of comorbidity. Advanced respiratory support was necessary during 67% of the current days of care, with 69% being conventional mechanical ventilation.

PICUs have been significantly impacted by the pandemic. They have provided care not only for children but also adults. Patients with coronavirus disease 2019 have a high frequency of comorbidities, require longer stays, more ventilatory support than usual PICU admissions. These data suggest several avenues for further exploration.