TITLE:
An Audit of Admissions to Intensive Care Unit at Kamuzu Central Hospital in Malawi
AUTHORS:
Rodwell Gundo, Edoly Shirley Lengu, Alfred Maluwa, Onias Mtalimanja, Deliwe Chipeta, Clement Kadyaudzu
KEYWORDS:
ICU Admission, Head Injuries, Retrospective ICU Audit, Sepsis, Length of ICU Stay
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Nursing,
Vol.4 No.8,
July
3,
2014
ABSTRACT: Results are
presented of a retrospective audit of admissions to the Intensive Care Unit
(ICU) of Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi, which is a tertiary
referral facility. The audit was conducted for a period of one year spanning
from January to December, 2012. The objectives of the audit were to: describe
the profile of admissions and treatment outcomes of the admissions and identify
main causes of mortality in ICU of the facility. The admission book and patients’
records were reviewed retrospectively guided by a data extraction form which
was specifically designed for this study. The extracted data included age, sex,
referring unit, diagnosis, treatment outcome and length of stay. The data were
analyzed using STATA version 10.0. A total of 253 patients were admitted to the
ICU over the one year period of study. About a third of the patients (33.6% n =
85) were admitted due to postoperative surgery. There were 154 deaths
representing an overall mortality of 60.9%. Sepsis was the commonest cause of
death and accounted for 39.6%, n = 61 of the deaths. Younger age of less than
40 years and increased patients’ length of stay in the unit were significantly
and positively associated with mortality (P