São Paulo medical journal = Revista paulista de medicina
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Patients are often admitted to intensive care units with delay in relation to when this service was indicated. The objective was to verify whether this delay influences hospital mortality, length of stay in the unit and hospital, and APACHE II prediction. DESIGN AND SETITNG: Prospective and accuracy study, in intensive care unit of Santa Casa de São Paulo, a tertiary university hospital. ⋯ APACHE II foresaw the mortality rate among patients that arrived faster to the intensive core unit, while the mortality rate was higher among those patients whose admission to the intensive care unit took longer.