Citation

Taira BR, Meng H, Goodman MS, Singer AJ. Burns 2009; 35(8): 1092-1096.

Affiliation

Department of Emergency Medicine, Stony Brook University Medical Center, HSC L4, 080, Stony Brook, NY 11794-8350, United States.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.burns.2009.04.023

PMID

19553021

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Previous critical care and cardiology studies find that critically ill patients have worse outcomes when admitted to the hospital during off-hours as compared to those admitted during weekdays. As severe burn is equally emergent we hypothesized that this disparity in outcomes would exist for burn patients as well. STUDY DESIGN: Secondary analysis of the National Trauma Data Bank (NTDB) version 7.1. The NTDB is a national registry of hospital admissions for traumatic injury administered by the American College of Surgeons. SETTING: 700 trauma facilities nationwide contributing to the NTDB between 2002 and 2006. SUBJECTS: All trauma patients included in the dataset with the injury mechanism of burn divided into "off-hours" admits (nights from 6pm to 6am and weekends) and weekday admits. MEASURES: Time and day of admission, demographics, ISS score, injury characteristics (+/-inhalational injury, TBSA, and full thickness injury), facility characteristics (number of burn beds, teaching status). OUTCOMES: Mortality as the primary outcome. Secondary outcomes include ICU length of stay (LOS), hospital length of stay. DATA ANALYSIS: Descriptive statistics to summarize group characteristics, chi(2) and Student's t tests for bivariate analysis, multivariable linear and logistic regressions. RESULTS: Of the 25,572 burn patients, 17,625 (68.9%) arrived during off-hours. There was no difference in ICU length of stay (LOS) (p=0.233), hospital LOS (p=0.82), or mortality (p=0.546) for those admitted during off-hours compared with weekday admits. In multivariate analysis when controlling for age, gender, burn characteristics (inhalation injury, full thickness injury, and TBSA >30%), and hospital type, off-hours admission was not predictive of mortality (OR=1.06, 95% CI 0.91-1.23). CONCLUSIONS: Contrary to studies in other critically ill patient populations, off-hours admission is not predictive of worse outcomes in burn patients.

Language: en