Table 1.
Baseline characteristics of participating ICUs and included shifts in the InFoQI program
| Intervention | Control | |
|---|---|---|
| ICU level characteristics | ||
| Number included in analysis | 13 | 11 |
| Academic or teaching hospital | 9 | 5 |
| Cardiac surgery center | 2 | 2 |
| Emergency bed available | 8 | 8 |
| Participated in indicator pilot study | 5 | 3 |
| Shift level characteristics | ||
| Number included in analysis | ||
| Bed occupancy rate | 18,063 | 15,519 |
| Nurse-to-patient ratio | 18,061 | 15,594 |
| Number of operational bedsa | 13.6 (8.1) | 12.98 (7.7) |
| Bed occupancy ratea | 75.6 (2.0) | 79.5 (2.2) |
| Percentage of shifts adhering to standard for bed occupancy rateb | 50 % | 43 % |
| Number of qualified nursesa | 7.1 (4.5) | 6.6 (5.5) |
| Nurse-to-patient ratioa | 0.72 (0.3) | 0.69 (0.3) |
| Percentage of shifts adhering to standard for nurse-to-patient ratio | 76 % | 74 % |
ICU intensive care unit, QI quality improvement
aValues are mean (standard deviation) of day, evening, and night shifts together
bExpressed as the proportion of shifts with bed occupancy rate below 80 %
cExpressed as the proportion of shifts with nurse-to-patient ratio above 0.5