Profile of medical ICU vs. ward patients in an acute care hospital.

Demographic characteristics, severity of illness, resource utilization, and outcome were compared for 351 medical ICU (MICU) and 329 ward patients of a large, urban, tertiary care hospital. Patients were similar in age, race, sex, and insurance coverage. Both MICU and ward patients had similar health status distributions 3 to 6 months before hospitalization. Severity of illness, as measured by the Acute Physiology Score was significantly higher in the MICU patients, although there was considerable overlap in the distributions. Resource utilization, as measured by the Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System (TISS), was also significantly higher in the MICU; again, the distributions of the two groups overlapped, although mostly for low values of TISS. Of the MICU sample, 28% to 30% never required active therapeutic interventions; 11% of the ward sample received active treatment. The significant overlap between MICU and ward distributions of severity of illness and resource utilization has implications for admission and discharge policies.