Doctors’ experiences of referring and admitting patients to the intensive care unit: a qualitative study of doctors’ practices at two tertiary hospitals in Malawi

OBJECTIVE: To explore doctors’ experiences of referring and admitting patients to the intensive care unit (ICU) at two tertiary hospitals in Malawi. DESIGN: This was a qualitative study that used face-to-face interviews. The interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim into English. The data were analysed manually through conventional content analysis. SETTING: Two public tertiary hospitals in the central and southern regions of Malawi. Interviews were conducted from January to June 2021. PARTICIPANTS: Sixteen doctors who were involved in the referral and admission of patients to the ICU. RESULTS: Four themes were identified namely, lack of clear admission criteria, ICU admission requires a complex chain of consultations, shortage of ICU resources, and lack of an ethical and legal framework for discontinuing treatment of critically ill patients who were too sick to benefit from ICU. CONCLUSION: Despite the acute disease burden and increased demand for ICU care, the two hospitals lack clear processes for referring and admitting patients to the ICU. Given the limited bed space in ICUs, hospitals in low-income countries, including Malawi, need to improve or develop admission criteria, severity scoring systems, ongoing professional development activities, and legislation for discontinuing intensive care treatments and end-of-life care.