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Table 1 Patient characteristics

From: Intensivists' base specialty of training is associated with variations in mortality and practice patterns

 

Entire cohort of patients

Patients cared for by a single Intensivist during ICU stay

 

Overall

(n = 9808)

Internal Medicine

(n = 4146)

Pulmonary

(n = 3906)

AGSEM

(n = 1756)

p value*

Overall

(n = 4612)

Internal Medicine

(n = 1944)

Pulmonary

(n = 1844)

AGSEM

(n = 824)

p value*

Mean age in years (± SD)

56.8 (18.8)

56.0

(18.9)

58.4

(18.2)

55.2

(19.7)

<0.001

57.1 (19.2)

56.6 (19.4)

58.2

(18.6)

55.7 (19.9)

<0.01

Male (%)

57.8

58.0

56.8

59.9

NS

56.0

55.5

56.0

57.0

NS

Mean admission APACHE II (± SD)

23.2

(9.1)

23.1

(8.9)

23.4

(9.3)

22.7

(8.9)

< 0.05

22.2 (9.4)

22.5

(9.3)

21.9

(9.4)

21.8 (9.3)

NS

Mean admission TISS (± SD)

35.7 (13.3)

36.3

(13.4)

34.5

(13.1)

36.7

(13.3)

<0.001

33.1 (13.3)

33.7 (13.5)

31.7

(12.8)

34.4 (13.5)

<0.001

Admitting diagnosis (% of total

admissions within each group)

          

   Pulmonary

30.7

30.3

32.4

28.3

<0.01

28.5

28.6

29.4

26.8

<0.01

   Cardiovascular

23.4

21.0

27.3

20.3

<0.001

24.3

21.9

28.0

22.1

<0.001

   Neurologic

13.6

16.7

10.2

13.9

<0.001

13.6

16.3

10.2

15.0

<0.01

   Gastrointestinal

10.7

10.2

11.0

10.7

NS

11.3

11.5

11.4

10.6

NS

   Trauma

9.2

10.2

5.4

15.2

<0.001

6.5

7.4

3.9

10.3

<0.001

   Poisoning

5.6

4.6

6.5

6.1

<0.01

7.7

6.6

8.5

8.7

<0.01

   Other

6.8

6.9

7.2

5.5

<0.01

8.0

7.7

8.6

6.6

NS

Admit level of care (% DNR)

9.5

9.4

9.8

9.1

NS

11.8

12.4

11.2

11.9

NS

Discharge level of care (% DNR)

22.3

22.7

22.4

21.2

NS

21.4

23.6

19.4

20.5

<0.01

ICU occupancy at admission (%)

84.0

83.3

84.3

85.1

<0.001

83.6

83.1

83.5

84.8

<0.05

  1. AGSEM = Intensivists with base specialty training in Anesthesia, General Surgery or Emergency Medicine; APACHE = Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation Score; DNR = Do Not Resuscitate; ICU = Intensive Care Unit; n/a = not applicable; SD = Standard Deviation; TISS = Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System
  2. * Reflects comparisons between the three specialty groups