Digital
This is the fourth publication of adult critical care data, which forms part of Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) and is collected as part of the Critical Care Minimum Data Set (CCMDS). It covers critical care periods ending between 1 April 2011 and 31 March 2012, and draws on records submitted by providers as an attachment to the inpatient record.
In 2011-12:
Critical Care Periods
· There were 238,248 records of adult critical care periods usable for analysis, an increase on the 215,728 records usable for analysis in 2010-11.
· Nearly twice as many critical care periods were recorded as starting on each weekday (between 15% and 17 per cent per day) as on a Saturday (8.8 per cent) or Sunday (8.2 per cent)
· More critical care periods were recorded as starting between 18:00-18:59 than any other hour in the day (8.1 per cent of all recorded start times).
Critical Care Patients
· The majority of critical care records were for male patients (58 per cent or 137,225) of records where gender was recorded).
· Nearly all records where the information is available - 95 per cent (173,623 records) - recorded the patient as having been admitted to the critical care unit from the same NHS hospital site as the critical care unit.
· A large majority of records identify that patients went elsewhere in the same NHS hospital site upon the end of their critical care period (84 per cent or 149,703) of records with the information recorded).
· In around 9 per cent of cases, the patient died in the critical care unit.
Clinical Analysis
· 'Cardiac surgery and primary cardiac conditions' was the Healthcare Resource Group chapter identified in more records than any other, accounting for 27 per cent of male and 17 per cent of female records.
· On average, the equivalent of 9 days'-worth of organ support was recorded per critical care period.
· More critical care records had 2 types of organ support recorded than any other number of support types (31 per cent of the records).
Critical Care Units
· 60 per cent (141,842) of adult critical care records were for care units for non-specific general adult care, and 18 per cent (43,226 records) were for units where cardiac surgical patients predominate.