The role of transport intervals in outcomes for critically ill patients who are transferred to referral centers.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to determine the association between transport intervals (including time from call to arrival of transport team at the sending hospital, time spent by the transport team in the sending hospital, and transport time between the sending and receiving hospital) and intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital length of stay and hospital mortality at the receiving hospital.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a retrospective, stratified cohort study involving all patients 15 years and older who were transferred from one hospital to another of equal or larger size in British Columbia, Canada, and who spent at least 1 day in an ICU or coronary care unit (CCU) at the receiving hospital during 1999 (n = 1930). Data were obtained from 6 administrative databases and linked using generalized software.

RESULTS: After adjustment for age, sex, comorbidity, and diagnostic group, longer time from call to arrival of paramedics at the sending hospital was associated with a shorter length of ICU/CCU stay (rate ratio [RR], 0.91; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.86-0.97) for survivors and a longer length of hospital (RR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.05-1.21) and ICU/CCU (RR, 1.14; 95% CI, 1.04-1.25) stay for nonsurvivors in the higher-priority air transport group, and with a slightly shorter length of hospital stay (RR, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.95-0.99) for all patients in the lower-priority air transport group. Longer time spent by paramedics at the sending hospital was associated with a shorter length of hospital stay (RR, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.65-0.96) for survivors in the higher-priority air transport group. Longer time for transport between the sending and receiving hospitals was associated with a longer length of ICU/CCU stay (RR, 1.69; 95% CI, 1.26-2.27) for survivors in the higher-priority air transport group but a slightly shorter length of ICU/CCU stay (RR, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.95-0.99) for all patients in the ground transport group. There were no associations between transport times and hospital mortality.

CONCLUSIONS: Transport intervals are independently associated with ICU/CCU and hospital lengths of stay at the receiving hospital for critically ill adults transferred to referral centers.