Rationale: The objective of this study was to evaluate the risk of mortality or ECMO cannulation for patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 transferred from sending hospitals to receiving tertiary care centers as a function of the duration of time at the sending hospital.
Objective: To determine outcomes of critically ill patients with COVID-19 who were transferred to tertiary or quarternary care medical centers.
Materials and methods: Retrospective cohort study of critical care transports of patients to one of seven consortium tertiary care centers from March 1, 2020, through September 4, 2020. Age 14 years and older with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 transported from a sending hospital to a receiving tertiary care center by the critical care transport organization.
Results: Patients transported with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 to tertiary care centers had a mortality rate of 38.0%. Neither the number of days admitted, nor the number of days intubated at the sending hospital correlated with mortality (correlation coefficient 0.051 and -0.007, respectively). Similarly, neither the number of days admitted, nor number of days intubated at the sending hospital correlated with ECMO cannulation (correlation coefficient 0.008 and -0.036, respectively).
Conclusion: It may be reasonable to transfer a critically ill COVID-19 patient to a tertiary care center even if they have been admitted at the sending hospital for several days.
Keywords: COVID-19; extracorporeal membrane oxygenation; mechanical ventilation; mortality; patient transfer; tertiary care.