ABSTRACT
Readmission rates of patients discharged from the intensive care unit (ICU) are high. The Stability and Workload Index for Transfer (SWIFT) score is an objective and validated scoring system that has been developed to prevent or predict readmission to ICU. We aimed to evaluate the usability of SWIFT score in a high occupancy ICU at our hospital settings.
This study was performed between July 1, 2017 and December 31, 2017 as a prospective observational study in a tertiary training hospital ICU. The patients who were discharged to the ward or coronary ICU at least two days after hospitalization in ICU for non-surgical reasons and readmitted within the first seven days after discharge were included in the study. The SWIFT and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation-2 (APACHE-2) scores of the patients were calculated according to the worst parameters of last 24 hours.
During the study period, 201 patients were discharged and 53 patients were included in the study. Of all patients, 20.75% were readmitted to ICU in the first seven days after discharge. There was no significant difference between re-admitted and non-re-admitted groups in terms of SWIFT and APACHE-2 scores, which were calculated with the worst values on the day of discharge. For the SWIFT score, we found the area under ROC as 0.458.
The SWIFT score calculated on the day of discharge was not sufficient to determine re-admission in patients admitted to our ICU for non-surgical reasons.
Keywords: Intensive care, readmission, discharge, SWIFT score, APACHE-2 score