Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34324569›Full record

ArticlePloS one2021

A national retrospective study of the association between serious operational problems and COVID-19 specific intensive care mortality risk.

Harrison Wilde, John M Dennis, Andrew P McGovern, Sebastian J Vollmer, Bilal A Mateen

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Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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2 · The registry

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Harrison WildeDepartment of Statistics, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0002-4391-8204
John M DennisInstitute of Biomedical & Clinical Science, University of Exeter Medical School, Exeter, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0002-7171-732X
Andrew P McGovernInstitute of Biomedical & Clinical Science, University of Exeter Medical School, Exeter, United Kingdom.
Sebastian J VollmerDepartment of Statistics, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom.
Bilal A MateenThe Alan Turing Institute, London, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0003-4423-6472

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectivesTo describe the relationship between reported serious operational problems (SOPs), and mortality for patients with COVID-19 admitted to intensive care units (ICUs).

designEnglish national retrospective cohort study.

setting89 English hospital trusts (i.e. small groups of hospitals functioning as single operational units). PATIENTS: All adults with COVID-19 admitted to ICU between 2nd April and 1st December, 2020 (n = 6,737).

interventionsN/A. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Hospital trusts routinely submit declarations of whether they have experienced 'serious operational problems' in the last 24 hours (e.g. due to staffing issues, adverse weather conditions, etc.). Bayesian hierarchical models were used to estimate the association between in-hospital mortality (binary outcome) and: 1) an indicator for whether a SOP occurred on the date of a patient's admission, and; 2) the proportion of the days in a patient's stay that had a SOP occur within their trust. These models were adjusted for individual demographic characteristics (age, sex, ethnicity), and recorded comorbidities.

resultsSerious operational problems (SOPs) were common; reported in 47 trusts (52.8%) and were present for 2,701 (of 21,716; 12.4%) trust days. Overall mortality was 37.7% (2,539 deaths). Admission during a period of SOPs was associated with a substantially increased mortality; adjusted odds ratio (OR) 1.34 (95% posterior credible interval (PCI): 1.07 to 1.68). Mortality was also associated with the proportion of a patient's admission duration that had concurrent SOPs; OR 1.47 (95% PCI: 1.10 to 1.96) for mortality where SOPs were present for 100% compared to 0% of the stay. CONCLUSION AND RELEVANCE: Serious operational problems at the trust-level are associated with a significant increase in mortality in patients with COVID-19 admitted to critical care. The link isn't necessarily causal, but this observation justifies further research to determine if a binary indicator might be a valid prognostic marker for deteriorating quality of care.

Indexed as

AdolescentAdultAgedAged, 80 and overBayes TheoremCOVID-19Critical CareFemaleHospitalizationHospital MortalityHospitalsHumansIntensive Care UnitsMaleMiddle AgedOdds Ratio

Identifiers

PMID34324569
PMCPMC8321157

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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.