Predictors of critical care, mechanical ventilation, and mortality among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in an electronic health record database

BACKGROUND: There are limited data on risk factors for serious outcomes and death from COVID-19 among patients representative of the U.S. population. The objective of this study was to determine risk factors for critical care, ventilation, and death among hospitalized patients with COVID-19. METHODS: This was a cohort study using data from Optum’s longitudinal COVID-19 electronic health record database derived from a network of healthcare provider organizations across the US. The study included patients with confirmed COVID-19 (presence of ICD-10-CM code U07.1 and/or positive SARS-CoV-2 test) between January 2020 and November 2020. Patient characteristics and clinical variables at start of hospitalization were evaluated for their association with subsequent serious outcomes (critical care, mechanical ventilation, and death) using odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) from logistic regression, adjusted for demographic variables. RESULTS: Among 56,996 hospitalized COVID-19 patients (49.5% male and 72.4% ≥ 50 years), 11,967 received critical care, 9136 received mechanical ventilation, and 8526 died. The median duration of hospitalization was 6 days (IQR: 4, 11), and this was longer among patients that experienced an outcome: 11 days (IQR: 6, 19) for critical care, 15 days (IQR: 8, 24) for mechanical ventilation, and 10 days (IQR: 5, 17) for death. Dyspnea and hypoxemia were the most prevalent symptoms and both were associated with serious outcomes in adjusted models. Additionally, temperature, C-reactive protein, ferritin, lactate dehydrogenase, D-dimer, and oxygen saturation measured during hospitalization were predictors of serious outcomes as were several in-hospital diagnoses. The strongest associations were observed for acute respiratory failure (critical care: OR, 6.30; 95% CI, 5.99–6.63; ventilation: OR, 8.55; 95% CI, 8.02–9.11; death: OR, 3.36; 95% CI, 3.17–3.55) and sepsis (critical care: OR, 4.59; 95% CI, 4.39–4.81; ventilation: OR, 5.26; 95% CI, 5.00–5.53; death: OR, 4.14; 95% CI, 3.92–4.38). Treatment with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers during hospitalization were inversely associated with death (OR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.54–0.61). CONCLUSIONS: We identified several clinical characteristics associated with receipt of critical care, mechanical ventilation, and death among COVID-19 patients. Future studies into the mechanisms that lead to severe COVID-19 disease are warranted. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12879-022-07383-6.