Impact of an intensive care information system on the length of stay of surgical ICU patients: an observational study (Preprint)

Background: The implementation of computerized monitoring and prescription systems in intensive care has proven to be reliable in reducing the rate of medical error and increasing patient care time. They also showed a benefit in reducing the length of stay in the intensive care unit (ICU). However, this benefit has been poorly studied, with conflicting results. Objective: This study aimed to show the impact of computerization on the length of stay in ICUs. Methods: This was a before-after retrospective observational study. All patients admitted in the surgical ICU at the Rouen University Hospital were included, from June 1, 2015, to June 1, 2016, for the before period and from August 1, 2016, to August 1, 2017, for the after period. The data were extracted from the hospitalization report and included the following: epidemiological data (age, sex, weight, height, and body mass index), reason for ICU admission, severity score at admission, length of stay and mortality in ICU, mortality in hospital, use of life support during the stay, and ICU readmission during the same hospital stay. The consumption of antibiotics, biological analyses, and the number of chest x-rays during the stay were also analyzed. Results: A total of 1600 patients were included: 839 in the before period and 761 in the after period. Only the severity score Simplified Acute Physiology Score II was significantly higher in the postcomputerization period (38 [SD 20] vs 40 [SD 21]; P<.05). There was no significant difference in terms of length of stay in ICU, mortality, or readmission during the stay. There was a significant increase in the volume of prescribed biological analyses (5416 [5192-5956] biological exams prescribed in the period before Intellispace Critical Care and Anesthesia [ICCA] vs 6374 [6013-6986] biological exams prescribed in the period after ICCA; P=.002), with an increase in the total cost of biological analyses, to the detriment of hematological and biochemical blood tests. There was also a trend toward reduction in the average number of chest x-rays, but this was not significant (0.55 [SD 0.39] chest x-rays per day per patient before computerization vs 0.51 [SD 0.37] chest x-rays per day per patient after computerization; P=.05). On the other hand, there was a decrease in antibiotic prescribing in terms of cost per patient after the implementation of computerization (€149.50 [$164 USD] per patient before computerization vs €105.40 [$155 USD] per patient after computerization). Conclusions: Implementation of an intensive care information system at the Rouen University Hospital in June 2016 did not have an impact on reducing the length of stay.