Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: Hospital bed capacity is one of problems in intensive care unit during at the time of crisis, emergencies and disasters. At this regard, it seems reverse triage can resolve this issue by using predictive score systems. This study was purposed to develop a reverse triage system in intensive care unit using APACHE II scoring system for crisis, emergencies and disasters situations.
Methods: This study was performed by a prospective longitudinal design that lasted from March 2016 to February 2017. Research population were 420 internal patients that were admitted in intensive care units of Imam Reza Hospital in Mashhad, Iran. Data were collected and documented for each patient by demographic questionnaire and APACHE II scoring system daily until discharging time from intensive care units. The patient’s status after discharge from the intensive care unit was used as a criterion for statistical tests.
Results: APACHE II mean score in first day of admission was 18.9±16.20. Risk ratio of patients’ discharging from intensive care unit was 1.034. The patients were placed in four levels of inverse triage according to mortality rate and risk ratio. The scores of four levels were including: 0-10 (first level and green color), 11-16 (second level and yellow color), 27-71 (third level and black color) and 17-26 (fourth level and red color).
Conclusion: The Apache II system can be used as a tool for reverse triage in intensive care units during at the time of crisis, emergencies and disasters. When using this system for reverse triage, patients at the first to third levels can be discharged from intensive care unit. However, patients on the fourth level should not be discharged from intensive care units under any circumstances.

Background: Discharge with personal satisfaction means the patient's withdrawal from the permission that had previously been given to the care unit for services. Discharge with personal satisfaction is initiated with the untimely termination of treatment by the patient or parents and in some cases leads to hospitalization or even death of the patient. This study aimed to determining the main causes of discharge with personal satisfaction in hospitalized patients.
Methods: The present cross-sectional study examines at hospitalized patients of Amiralmomenin Hospital in Zabol, Iran, to examine the reasons discharge with personal satisfaction in relation to the patient, hospital staff and the housing status of the hospital during the period from April 2017 to March 2018. All clearance patients with personal satisfaction entered the study. Demographic data, insurance status, type of insurance (social security, health services, resettlement, relief, armed forces, maternity, maternity, other supplementary insurance), number of admission days, hospital admission (morning, evening, night), type of illness or cause of referral (multiple trauma, surgery, orthopedics, neurology, neurology), the reason for possible re-admittance within the next two weeks and the main reasons for clearance with personal consent was collected and recorded using a pre-designed checklist.
Results: The most of the cases of which were due to neurological complaints (51%). 803 (80%) of patients referred back to the hospital due to self-correlated problems, 163 (16%) patients were hospital left with satisfaction due to the hospital-made staffing problem (P=0.001). The results of the study showed that the highest frequency was related to male (67%) and most of them were married (84%), while most of them had insurance (74%), especially army and municipality insurance (34%).
Conclusion: Based on the results of the present study, most cases of discharge were patient related. Adequate recovery feeling and the desire to continue treatment in private centers were the main causes.