ArticleIntensive care medicine2012
The variability of critical care bed numbers in Europe.
Article in Intensive care medicine, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT02679157 (Prognostication of Need for Rehabilitation and Special Support in ICU Survivors. Two Studies Prognosticating Adverse Physical or Psychological Outcome), which is not on this map. Cited by 284 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Prognostication of Need for Rehabilitation and Special Support in ICU Survivors. Two Studies Prognosticating Adverse Physical or Psychological Outcome
Who cites it
284 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Vital sign-based Early Warning Scores in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review of clinical effectiveness and implementation challenges.Global health action · 2026Pooled it
- [Agency work in intensive care : Impact of temporary contract work on patient care in intermediate care and intensive care units].Medizinische Klinik, Intensivmedizin und Notfallmedizin · 2022Pooled it
- Factors associated with disease severity and mortality among patients with COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2020Pooled it
- Trial
- Temporal Heterogeneity of Factors Associated with Intra-ICU Mortality: A Formal Interaction Analysis of the Multi-Centre Silesian ICU Registry (2010-2020).Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Trends in Hospitalization, Case Fatality, and Mortality for Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Portugal over 20 Years.Epidemiologia (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- EU preparedness and ICU capacity: where are the beds?Intensive care medicine · 2026Article
- Impact of Intensive Care Unit Type and Organizational Factors on Mortality in Patients Transferred from Internal Medicine Services to the Intensive Care Unit: A Prospective Cohort Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Decision-making for ICU admission: is there a place for AI? Exploring and understanding meaning, experiences, and perspectives.BMC medical ethics · 2026Article
- Decreasing admissions in older and increasing mortality in younger patients: a nationwide observational study of all German ICU cases 2011-2022.Critical care (London, England) · 2026Observational
- National cost of intensive care in Japan from 2018 to 2022.Journal of intensive care · 2026Article
- Beyond bed counts: equity and access to adult intensive care in middle-income countries, the Brazilian case.Critical care science · 2026Article
- Intensive care patients eligible for intermediate care unit-level care: a single-centre prospective cohort study in Belgium.Critical care science · 2026Article
- Human Development Index and outcomes in older critically ill patients: A European multicentre study.Annals of intensive care · 2026Article
- Evaluation of clinical research priorities in Asian intensive care units (ERA-ICU).Journal of intensive care · 2025Article
- Frailty and comorbidity in COVID-19 patients with and without ICU admission restrictions: a retrospective observational study.Journal of anesthesia, analgesia and critical care · 2025Article
- Article
- Beyond SOFA and APACHE II, Novel Risk Stratification Models Using Readily Available Biomarkers in Critical Care.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- National survey evaluating the introduction of new and alternative staffing models in intensive care (SEISMIC-R) in the UK.BMJ open · 2025Observational
- Circumstantial risk factors for death after intensive care unit-to-unit inter-hospital transfer-a Swedish registry study.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2025Article
224 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeTo quantify the numbers of critical care beds in Europe and to understand the differences in these numbers between countries when corrected for population size and gross domestic product.
methodsProspective data collection of critical care bed numbers for each country in Europe from July 2010 to July 2011. Sources were identified in each country that could provide data on numbers of critical care beds (intensive care and intermediate care). These data were then cross-referenced with data from international databases describing population size and age, gross domestic product (GDP), expenditure on healthcare and numbers of acute care beds.
resultsWe identified 2,068,892 acute care beds and 73,585 (2.8 %) critical care beds. Due to the heterogeneous descriptions of these beds in the individual countries it was not possible to discriminate between intensive care and intermediate care in most cases. On average there were 11.5 critical care beds per 100,000 head of population, with marked differences between countries (Germany 29.2, Portugal 4.2). The numbers of critical care beds per country corrected for population size were positively correlated with GDP (r(2) = 0.16, p = 0.05), numbers of acute care beds corrected for population (r(2) = 0.12, p = 0.05) and the percentage of acute care beds designated as critical care (r(2) = 0.59, p < 0.0001). They were not correlated with the proportion of GDP expended on healthcare.
conclusionsCritical care bed numbers vary considerably between countries in Europe. Better understanding of these numbers should facilitate improved planning for critical care capacity and utilization in the future.
Indexed as
Identifiers
22777516What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.