Elective admission: Include admission (planned or foreseeable) after elective surgery or admission for an elective procedure (e.g. insertion of a central line), or elective monitoring, or review of home ventilation. An ICU admission or an operation is considered elective if it could be postponed for more than 6 hours without adverse effect.
Reason for ICU admission : Recovery from surgery or procedure (includes a radiology procedure or cardiac catheter). Do not include patients admitted from the operating theatre where recovery from surgery is not the main reason for ICU admission (e.g. a patient with a head injury who is admitted from theatre after insertion of an ICP monitor; in this patient the main reason for ICU admission is the head injury).
Low - High - Very High Risk Diagnoses:
- Bronchiolitis : Include children who present either with respiratory distress or central apnea where the clinical diagnosis is bronchiolitis.
- Obstructive sleep apnea : Include patients admitted following adenoidectomy and/or tonsillectomy in whom obstructive sleep apnea is the main reason for ICU admission (and code as recovery from surgery).
- Seizure disorder : Include patients who require admission primarily due to status epilepticus, epilepsy, febrile convulsion, or other epileptic syndrome where admission is required either to control seizures or to recover from the effects of seizures or treatment.
- Cerebral hemorrhage : Must be spontaneous (e.g. from aneurysm or AV malformation). Do not include traumatic cerebral hemorrhage or intracranial hemorrhage that is not intracerebral (e.g. subdural hemorrhage).
- Hypoplastic left heart syndrome : Any age, but include only cases where a Norwood procedure or equivalent is required in the neonatal period to sustain life.
- Neurodegenerative disorder : Requires a history of progressive loss of milestones (even if no specific condition has been diagnosed), or a diagnosis where this will inevitably occur. As examples : Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Spinal Muscular Atrophy, Rett Syndrom, Alpers' Disease, Cerebro-Oculo-Facio-Skeletal Syndrom, Leigh's Disease, Monomelic Amyotrophy, Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy
- Cardiac arrest preceding ICU admission : Includes both in-hospital and out-of-hospital arrest. Requires either documented absent pulse or the requirement for external cardiac compression. Do not include past history of cardiac arrest.
- Leukemia or lymphoma : Include only cases where admission is related to leukemia or lymphoma or the therapy for these conditions.
- Liver failure, acute or chronic : Must be the main reason for ICU admission. Do not include patients admitted following an elective liver transplant.
