Profiles of patients with COVID-19 have been widely studied, but little is known about differences in baseline characteristics and in outcomes between subjects with a ceiling of care assigned at hospital admission and subjects without a ceiling of care.

The aim of this study was to describe clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with COVID-19 and to study the impact of their ceiling of care across waves.

Subjects with a ceiling of care were mainly older, with more comorbidities at baseline and some features of their clinical profiles change among waves. Subject with a ceiling of care in all waves had poorer outcomes than subjects without a ceiling of care.

As a result of differences at baseline and in outcomes between subjects with and without a ceiling of care, analysis should be stratified according to therapeutic ceiling of care to avoid bias.