Table 1

Hospital and demographic characteristics for participating centers

Characteristic
Hospital Albert Einstein
Hospital Geral do Grajaú
Hospital Governador Celso Ramos
Hospital Universitário da UFSC
Hospital dos Servidores do Estado de SP



(Center 1)
(Center 2)
(Center 3)
(Center 4)
(Center 5)


Type
Private tertiary hospital
Public community hospital managed by a private university
Public tertiary hospital with a regional trauma center
Public University hospital
Public tertiary teaching hospital


Number of beds
400
249
272
255
391

Number of ICU beds
28
12
12
06
16

Stepdown unit
Yes
No
No
No
No

Mean monthly hospital admissions
1400
1050
503
624
2184

Mean monthly ICU admissions
170
38
46
25
103


Enrollment period
21 May to 10 October 2001
21 May to 10 October 2001
21 May to 10h October 2001
21 May to 10 October 2001
1 November to 31 January 2002
Overall

Number of ICU admissions
837
194
228
124
305
1688
Number of excluded patients
100
02
07
10
13
132
Number of missed patients
134
11
02
12
14
173
Number of enrolled patients
603
181
219
102
278
1383
Ratio of >24 h patients to all patients
0.59
0.80
0.57
0.75
0.64
0.64
Mean ICU LOS, days
1 (1–4)
4 (2–9)
2 (1–7)
2 (1–6)
2 (1–6)
2 (1–6)
Overall ICU mortality rate,%
11.6
38.25
27.7
28.7
26.1
21.8

ICU, intensive care unit; LOS, length of stay. Figures in parentheses are interquartile ranges.

Silva et al. Critical Care 2004 8:R251   doi:10.1186/cc2892