[Objective evaluation of a pediatric intensive care unit without continuous attendance (I)].

Eight-hundred and nine consecutive admissions have been reexamined by means of analysis of record cards made out at the moment of discharge from the ICU, in which, among other data, the TISS and PSI maximum for the first six hours from admission are included. The results obtained are the following: 50% of the admissions were classified as medium care (PSI < 5, TISS < 20), 28% were grade IV (PSI > 12, TISS > 40), and half were of grade III with a PSI of 9.38 and a TISS of 20.29. The overall mortality was 8.9%. However, the mortality for grades III+IV was 13.4% and gave a good correlation with the PSI, but not with the TISS. The PSI/TISS ratio was 0.45 and the predicted mortality rate according to the PSI was 6.1% for grade III and greater than 12% for grade IV. We conclude the following: (1) Of the illness, 28% were grade IV. (2) We observed a deficient PSI/TISS ratio. (3) The evaluation has to be done by objective means in which the capability of carrying out different methodologies has not been taken into account.