• Panagis Galiatsatos, Tracy Friedlander, Dina Dababneh, Katie Nelson, Denise Kelly, Thomas Finucane, Michelle Bellantoni, and William B Greenough.
• Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland. pgaliat1@jhmi.edu.
• Respir Care. 2017 Oct 1; 62 (10): 1284-1290.

IntroductionAmong survivors of intensive care, many remain dependent on mechanical ventilation and are discharged to long-term chronic ventilator units or to skilled nursing facilities. Few long-term outcome data are available on patients transferred from long-term chronic ventilator units.MethodsWe retrospectively followed subjects discharged from a long-term chronic ventilator unit from 2010-2012. We determined where these subjects went, evaluating whether location of discharge had an effect on mortality.ResultsWe followed 79 subjects who were 64.9 ± 15.9 y old. Average stay in the long-term chronic ventilator unit was 38.5 ± 20.1 d. Within the first year after discharge, 24 (30.3%) subjects died: 17 in a skilled nursing facility, 7 at home. Of those who survived the first year, 28 had been discharged to a skilled nursing facility and 27 to home. Survivors were younger (62.6 ± 12.4 vs 70.4 ± 13.1 y, P = .03), had shorter intensive care unit lengths of stay (10.4 ± 5.0 vs 16.4 ± 11.5 d, P = .03), and were more likely discharged home from long-term chronic ventilator unit (49.0% vs 29.1%, P = .040).ConclusionsSubjects discharged from an long-term chronic ventilator unit and were alive at 1 y had shorter stays in the ICU and were more likely to be discharged home. Further attention is warranted to assure the survival of critical care patients once they are discharged from intensive care units.Copyright © 2017 by Daedalus Enterprises.

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