ICU Discharge at Night Increases Mortality and Readmission

The primary reason for emergency department overcrowding, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, is intensive care unit (ICU) overcrowding. Investigators hypothesized that transfer of ICU patients at night is done to accommodate more emergent critical admissions and might result in release of patients who are not stable enough for a ward. To ascertain patient outcomes of nighttime ICU discharge, the investigators retrospectively analyzed prospectively collected data on patients who were transferred from an ICU to a ward at 31 Canadian hospitals during a 3-year period. Of more than 47,000 patients, 1632 (3.5%) were transferred at night (defined as midnight–7 am).

After adjustment for multiple variables, including illness seve…