Association of changes in the use of board-certified critical care intensivists with mortality outcomes for trauma patients at a well-established level I urban trauma center

BACKGROUND: An intensivist-directed Intensive Care Unit is a closed-model unit in which a physician formally trained in critical care plays a leadership role in patient management. In the last decade, there has been a move toward closed Intensive Care Units. The purpose of this evaluation was to assess the association of changes in the use of intensivists to a closed-model with mortality outcomes in injured patients seen in a long-established urban Level I Trauma Center. METHODS: This analysis used data from the Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn Medical Center trauma registry from January 1, 2002-December 31, 2008. Mortality prior to hospital discharge was compared in the pre-intensivist (intensivists were not employed and did not provide care), partial intensivist (intensivists were employed and provided care during some Intensive Care Unit shifts) and full-time intensivist (intensivists were employed and provided care in the Intensive Care Unit full time) periods. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to estimate odds ratios for mortality adjusting for patient characteristics and injury severity for the partial intensivist and full-time intensivist periods compared with the pre-intensivist period. RESULTS: Of 18,918 patients, 365 (1.9%) died before hospital discharge. After adjustment for demographic factors and injury severity score, for all patients, odds ratios comparing the partial intensivist and full-intensivist periods with the pre-intensivist period were 0.84 (95% confidence interval 0.64-1.11) and 0.99 (95% confidence interval 0.69-1.41). In patients with an injury severity score 16-24, the adjusted OR for death was 0.20 (95% CI 0.07-0.58) comparing the partial-intensivist with the pre-intensivist period and 0.30 (95% CI 0.11-0.88) comparing the full-time intensivist period with the pre-intensivist period. For patients age 65 + years, compared with the pre-intensivist period, odds ratio were 0.51 (95% confidence interval 0.31-0.84) and 0.61 (95% confidence interval 0.32-1.16) for the partial and full-time intensivist periods respectively. CONCLUSIONS: In our setting, a change to a closed Intensive Care Unit model was associated with improved mortality outcomes in patients with less severe injuries and patients age 65+ years.