Epidemiology and outcome of medical emergency team calls within 48 hours of intensive care unit discharge.

Background: Some patients experience early (within 48 h) clinical deterioration and medical emergency team (MET) review following intensive care unit (ICU) discharge. Few studies have explored early MET review, despite it being a recognised quality and safety indicator.

Aims: To evaluate the (i) proportion of patients discharged from ICU receiving MET review and timing of reviews; (ii) characteristics of patients who received early MET review and (iii) predictors of early MET review and associations with clinical outcomes.

Methods: This is a retrospective observational study of ICU discharges over 2 years in a tertiary hospital and involves descriptive and inferential statistics, including logistic regression analysis.

Results: Of 3712 patients, 312 (8.4%) had an early MET review. Patients with cardiothoracic, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and general surgical diagnoses, higher illness severity or who received invasive ventilation had a higher risk of early MET review. On multivariable analysis, early MET review was associated with an increased risk of ICU re-admission (odds ratio (OR) 6.76, 95% confidence interval (CI) 5.01-9.13, P < 0.001), in-hospital mortality (OR 3.62, 95% CI 2.19-5.99, P < 0.001) and discharge to a nursing home (OR 2.49, 95% CI 1.25-4.97, P = 0.01). Length of stay was longer in patients requiring early post-ICU MET review compared to those who did not (median 16 days vs. 10 days, P < 0.001).

Conclusions: One in 12 patients received post-ICU early MET review. This was more likely in patients who were invasively ventilated, had higher illness severity and had certain admission diagnoses. Such patients were at risk for worse outcomes. There is a need to identify reversible factors contributing to such increased risk.