To admit or not to admit? The suitability of critical care admission criteria

During the 2010/2011 winter the H1N1 influenza pandemic placed increased demand on critical care services, prompting our department to devise a modified triage tool for the ICU to be implemented at a time of exceptional bed crisis [1]. Scoring systems such as APACHE or Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) have been used to predict mortality and optimize critical care service utilization [2]. This audit aimed to validate our triage tool for patients admitted to the ICU.