Functional Characteristics of ICUs in Uganda and Their 28-day Patient Mortality

Intensive Care units are specialized units with expertise to provide organ support for the critically ill patients. There's a growing global burden of critical illness especially in the low-income coun-tries where critical care services are limited. Despite advances in critical care, the mortality in Uganda remains very high, with sepsis and trauma as the major contributors. There's paucity of literature regarding ICUs characteristics, disease burden and patient characteristics which could be contributing to the high mortality.

Objectives To describe the functional characteristics of the ICUs in Uganda. To determine the ICU mortality of critically ill patients in Uganda. To determine the risk factors of mortality of patients admitted in the ICU Methods A prospective cohort study will be carried out in all ICUs in Uganda. All new patients in the ICUs will be recruited into the study. Data will be collected onto two separate questionnaires, one for patient characteristics and the second for ICU functional characteristics. The patient's data will be collected within the first 24 hours and patients will be followed up for death\discharge within 28 days in the ICU. The data will be collected from the patients' charts and entered into Epidata.