Characteristics, Outcomes, and Predictability of Critically Ill Obstetric Patients

Abstract

Patients spent a median of 7 days in hospital; 3.6% died. Maternal-fetal-neonatal mortality was determined not only by acuteness of illness but to social and healthcare aspects like education, prenatal control, and being cared in specialized hospitals. Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (during first 24 hr of admission), easier to calculate than Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II, was a better predictor of maternal outcome. Evident health disparities existed between patients admitted to public versus private hospitals: the former received less prenatal care, were less educated, were more frequently transferred from other hospitals, were sicker at admission, and developed more complications; maternal and fetal-neonatal mortality were higher. These findings point to the need of redesigning healthcare services to account for these inequities.