PICU Organizational Characteristics
The median number of PICU beds was 12 (IQR 8-16) (Table 2). Most of the
participating units admitted a broad spectrum of patients, including
medical (100%), surgical (97%), neurosurgical (86%), and trauma
(90%) patients. Forty-nine% and 38% of the participating centers
included cardiac surgical and burns patients, respectively.
Sixty-eight PICUs (88%) were staffed by pediatric intensivists. In some
centers anesthetists (n=34, 44%), general pediatricians (n=29, 38%,
especially in eastern and central European PICUs), adult intensivists
(n=8, 10%), and oncologists (n=11, 14%) were part of the PICU team.
Six PICUs (8 %) did not have a 24/7 intensivist coverage. Sixty-six
PICUs (86%) had a 1:1 or 1:2 nurse-to-bed ratio (Fig. 2).
The median number of PICU admissions per year was 450 (IQR 290-750) with
a range of 10 to 2800 admissions per year. PICU admissions per region
were 300 (IQR 165-325) in northern Europe, 150 (IQR 110-236) in eastern
Europe, 550 (IQR 350-950) in central Europe, 425 (IQR 305-660) in
southern Europe, and 755 (IQR 689-895) in the UK. The median numbers of
PICU admissions of pediatric cancer and HSCT patients were similar
across the European regions with 20 (IQR 10-45) planned and 10 (IQR
10-30) unplanned admissions of cancer patients. Numbers of HSCT patients
admitted to PICU were lower (median 3 (IQR 0-7)) compared to number of
oncology patients and were predominantly unplanned.
Sixty-nine centers (90%) offered hemodialysis, plasmapheresis, or
plasma exchange (n=65, 84%) while 41 centers (53%) had in-house
extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) programs. The majority of the
participating centers had isolation capacity, either in the form of
geographic isolation (81%) or patient rooms with high-efficiency air
filtration (58%). Of note, 4% of the participating centers had no
isolation facility in their PICU.