Objective: To review the patterns of admissions, characteristics and clinical outcomes of the patients admitted to the seven-bed multidisciplinary general Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), Guyana.

 

Methods: This was a retrospective study of all the patients admitted to the ICU between January 2008 and December, 2009. The study was conducted mainly by chart reviews and the collected data were stored and analysed using Microsoft Excel programme.

 

Results: A total of 734 patients were admitted to the unit during the study period. Males comprised 56.5% and most of the admissions were from the operating rooms (38%). The mean age of the patients was 36 years, of this two-thirds (67%) of the patients were below 41 years. The average ICU length of stay (LOS) was 5.46 days with the survivors having a longer LOS than the non-survivors. Trauma was the largest diagnosis (24%) of the patients’ admission, and mortality was highest among the medical and paediatric patients. The ICU mortality rate was 48%.

 

Conclusion: Our ICU mortality was relatively high and many of the deaths were potentially preventable by simple public health interventions like immunization, vehicular accident reduction strategies, suicide prevention strategies, better sanitation, greater availability of primary healthcare, prompt basic emergency services, and regular availability of essential laboratory services and pharmaceutical supplies.