Background: The World Health Organisation declared a coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on March 11, 2020. Following activation of the UK pandemic response, our institution began planning for admission of COVID-19 patients to the neurointensive care unit (neuro-ICU) to support the local critical care network which risked being rapidly overwhelmed by the high number of cases. This report will detail our experience of repurposing a neuro-ICU for the management of severely ill patients with COVID-19 while retaining capacity for urgent neurosurgical and neurology admissions.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective process analysis of the repurposing of a quaternary level neuro-ICU during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. We retrieved demographic data, diagnosis, and outcomes from the electronic health care records of all patients admitted to the ICU between March 1, 2020 and April 30, 2020. Processes for increase in surge capacity, reduction in ICU demand, and staff redeployment and rapid training are reported.
Results: Over a 10-day period, total ICU capacity was increased by 21.7% (from 23 to 28 beds) while the capacity to provide mechanical ventilation was increased by 77% (from 13 to 23 beds). There were 30 ICU admissions of 29 COVID-19 patients between March 1 and April 30, 2020; median (range) length of ICU stay was 9.9 (1.3 to 32) days, duration of mechanical ventilation 11 (1 to 27) days, and ICU mortality rate 41.4%. There was a 44% reduction in urgent neurosurgical and neurology admissions compared with the same period in 2019.
Conclusions: It is possible to repurpose a dedicated neuro-ICU for the management of critically ill non-neurological patients during a pandemic response, while maintaining access for urgent neuroscience referrals.