Objectives: To study the change in outcome for patients admitted to an intensive care unit following the establishment of a team of resident medical staff and a change from an "open" to a "closed" organisational format.
Design: Database review of prospectively collected data.
Setting: Intensive care unit of a postgraduate teaching hospital.
Subjects: 1134 admissions to the intensive care unit over a 3-year period, of whom 476 (42%) followed elective surgery.
Main outcome measure: Hospital mortality corrected for illness severity by using the APACHE II scoring system.
Results: Crude hospital mortality fell from 28% before the changes to 20% afterwards (P = 0.01). With correction for case-mix factors, the probability of death after the changes was reduced by almost half (OR 0.51; CI 0.32, 0.82, P = 0.005).
Conclusion: A "closed" format of organisation of the delivery of care may result in improved outcomes for patients admitted to intensive care units.