Transfer to Another Health Care Facility Following Critical Illness

Many patients who survive critical illness are unable to return home upon hospital discharge and require prolonged or permanent care in other health care facilities. It would be useful to clinicians, researchers, patients, and patients' families to be able to identify early in the course of critical illness those patients who are at increased risk for this outcome. Currently, few data exist regarding the risk factors for this outcome. This study examines a cohort of survivors of critical illness to identify factors associated with transfer to another health care facility upon hospital discharge.

Inclusion criteria

• Admission to the University of Chicago Medical Intensive Care Unit during the following periods: July 1997 to February 1998, November/December 2001, and March/April 2002.

Exclusion criteria

• Death during the index hospitalization.
• Residence in another health care facility 2 weeks prior to admission.