Are ICU Length of Stay Predictions Worthwhile?

Critical Care Medicine www.ccmjournal.org 379 The sizeable binational, multicenter, prospective analysis by Santamaria et al (5) helps us gain serenity regarding ICU readmissions. Most are inevitable and reflect patient characteristics. Readmitted patients have greater illness severity with multiple organ support therapies required during their initial admission and persistent organ dysfunction postdischarge. Some are indeed preventable; our task is to have the courage to enact processes of care to help prevent them. Moving forward, further study is needed to give us the wisdom to know the difference before patients are discharged from the ICU, allowing us to direct our efforts toward the potentially preventable readmissions.