Assessment of the Risk of Unplanned Readmission to the Intensive Care Unit Using the Safe Discharge From ICU (SD-ICU) Score: A Validation Study.

In a recent study, which included 845 patients that at the time of ICU discharge had at least one risk factor for readmission, the investigators' group developed a new readmission risk score in the ICU, Safe Discharge from ICU (SD-ICU), using parameters easily and routinely measured in ICU: the Charlson comorbidity (ICC), the TISS-28 (Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System - 28), the length of stay in ICU and age. Through ROC curve analysis, the investigators found that patients with a score above 14.5 had a high probability of readmission.

The objective of this study is to validate the Safe Discharge from ICU (SD-ICU) score as a tool to predict unplanned readmissions to the intensive care unit.

All adult patients discharged from a 37 bed general ICU from April 2014 to March 2015 will be included in the study. The SD-ICU score is routinely calculated at the time of discharge from the ICU. Patients will be divided into two groups: those with SD-ICU score> 14.5 (group 1) and those with a score equal to or less than 14.5 (group 2). The two groups will be compared with respect to the frequency of unplanned readmissions. Stepwise, multivariate logistic regression will be used to investigate the association between the risk factors for readmission used in SD-ICU score and ICU readmission as outcome.