Effect of 24-hour mandatory vs on-demand critical care specialist presence on long-term survival and quality of life of critically ill patients in the intensive care unit of a teaching hospital

Background: Mandatory compared with on-demand intensivist presence improves processes of care and decreases intensive care unit (ICU) complication rate and hospital length of stay. The effect of continuous mandatory intensivist coverage on long-term patient mortality and quality of life (QOL) is not known. Methods: We compared the long-term survival before (year 2005) and after (year 2006) the intervention when the staffing model changed from on-demand presence to mandatory 24-hour staff-critical care specialist presence in the medical ICU. Baseline and 6-month QOL surveys (SF-36 [short form 36 health survey]) were compared in subgroups of patients admitted before and after the staffing change. Cox proportional hazard and paired statistical analyses were used for survival and QOL comparisons. Results: The baseline characteristics did not differ significantly between the 2 groups except for race and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation III score (median, 30 vs 37; P < .001 before and after the staffing model change). Long-term survival was not significantly different before and after the staffing change-adjusted hazard ratio, 1.05; 95% confidence interval, 0.95 to 1.16; P = .3. In a subset of ICU survivors, SF-36 physical component score improved significantly at 6 months compared with baseline after the staffing model change-δ mean (SD) 8 (14) vs 2 (11), P = .03. However, there was no difference in the δ mean mental component score of the SF-36 between the 2 groups (P = .77). Conclusions: Introduction of an additional night shift to provide mandatory as opposed to on-demand 24-hour staff critical care specialist coverage did not affect long-term survival of medical ICU patients.