Critical care staffing ratio and outcome of COVID-19 patients requiring intensive care unit admission during the first pandemic wave: a retrospective analysis across Switzerland from the RISC-19-ICU observational cohort

Jeitziner, Marie-Madlen; Moser, André; Wendel-Garcia, Pedro D; Exl, Matthias Thomas; Keiser, Stefanie; Schuepbach, Reto A; Pietsch, Urs; Cereghetti, Sara; Boroli, Filippo; Marrel, Julien; Sigg, Anne-Aylin; Ksouri, Hatim; Schott, Peter; Dullenkopf, Alexander; Fleisch, Isabelle; Heise, Antje; Laurent, Jean-Christophe; Jakob, Stephan M; Hilty, Matthias P; Que, Yok-Ai

doi:10.4414/smw.2022.w30183

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Jeitziner, M.-M., Moser, A., Wendel-Garcia, P. D., Exl, M. T., Keiser, S., Schuepbach, R. A., Pietsch, U., Cereghetti, S., Boroli, F., Marrel, J., Sigg, A.-A., Ksouri, H., Schott, P., Dullenkopf, A., Fleisch, I., Heise, A., Laurent, J.-C., Jakob, S. M., Hilty, M. P., & Que, Y.-A. (2022). Critical care staffing ratio and outcome of COVID-19 patients requiring intensive care unit admission during the first pandemic wave: a retrospective analysis across Switzerland from the RISC-19-ICU observational cohort. Swiss Medical Weekly, 152, w30183. https://doi.org/10.4414/smw.2022.w30183

Abstract

STUDY AIM: The surge of admissions due to severe COVID-19 increased the patients-to-critical care staffing ratio within the ICUs. We investigated whether the daily level of staffing was associated with an increased risk of ICU mortality (primary endpoint), length of stay (LOS), mechanical ventilation and the evolution of disease (secondary endpoints). METHODS: We employed a retrospective multicentre analysis of the international Risk Stratification in COVID-19 patients in the ICU (RISC-19-ICU) registry, limited to the period between M