Publication date: Sep 10, 2025
In a context of overwhelming demand, mass transfers between intensive care units (ICU) were organized in France during the first COVID-19 epidemic wave (spring 2020). According to early reports, transferred patients experienced a 3-to-4-fold lower ICU case fatality. It is not known whether this difference stems only from the selection of healthier patients for transfer. Is the 28-day ICU case fatality of transferred patients different from that of matched control (not transferred) patients? Multicenter retrospective cohort study that included 285 transferred patients, and 667 control (not transferred) patients admitted simultaneously (+/- 2 days) to the same “origin” ICU and alive five days after the transfer date. The 28-day ICU case fatality and clinical events during ICU stay were compared in transferred and control patients. At ICU admission, age, COVID-19 severity, comorbidities and Simplified Acute Physiology Score II (SAPS II) were similar, but transferred patients were lighter (81 versus 89 kg, p
| Concepts | Keywords |
|---|---|
| Epidemic | ARDS |
| France | COVID-19 |
| Healthier | Emergency Medical Service |
| Hospital transfer | |
| Intensive care unit | |
| Mortality |
Semantics
| Type | Source | Name |
|---|---|---|
| disease | MESH | care burden |
| disease | MESH | COVID-19 |
| disease | MESH | Emergency |