• Gianni Turcato, Arian Zaboli, Lucia Filippi, Alessandro Cipriano, Paolo Ferretto, Daniela Milazzo, Giulia Elena Sabbà, Michael Maggi, Massimo Marchetti, and Christian Josef Wiedermann.
• Department of Internal Medicine, Intermediate Care Unit, Hospital Alto Vicentino (AULSS-7), Via Graziere 52, Santorso, Italy. gianni.turcato@yahoo.it.
• Intern Emerg Med. 2024 Nov 21.

AbstractThe progressive reduction of acute care beds will necessitate hospital admission in medical settings solely for acutely ill patients requiring urgent organ support. Early stabilization of the acute condition, potentially through an appropriate treatment unit, may not only improve short-term patient outcomes but also reduce the length of hospital stay. To determine if stabilization of the acute condition in an intermediate care unit (IMCU) is associated with improved patient outcomes and reduced in-hospital stay. A prospective exploratory pilot observational study was conducted at the Department of Internal Medicine of the Alto Vicentino Hospital (Italy), including all patients admitted for non-intensive acute conditions between September and December 2022. The primary endpoint of the study was stabilization of the acute condition within 72 h of admission. Three hundred twenty four patients were enrolled. 73.5% (238/324) of patients achieved stabilization at 72 h, compared to 26.5% (86/324) who did not achieve stabilization. Among the variables found to be significant in the multivariate analysis, admission to the IMCU was associated with achieving stabilization within 72 h with an odds ratio of 2.28 (95% CI 1.29-4.01, p < 0.004). Meanwhile, for 30-day mortality, patient stabilization was found to be protective with an odds ratio of 0.11 (95% CI 0.04-0.29, p < 0.001). Early stabilization is associated with lower 30-day mortality and shorter lengths of stay. Treatment in an IMCU shows higher rates of 72-h stabilization.© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Medicina Interna (SIMI).

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