Some ICU stays are longer than the postoperative stay¶

In 37 cases the ICU day count reaches or exceeds the days from surgery to discharge, though the release describes it as the postoperative ICU stay. Most are emergencies with long stays before surgery, so the count probably includes ICU days before the operation.


Status	likely: consistent, with a known gap.
Clocks	Hospital records clock
Devices	Clinical records
Variables	ICU days

What it means¶

For these cases the ICU count is not a postoperative quantity, and the 17 cases one day over cannot be used to decide the counting rule.

What is done about it¶

Flag ICU days greater than or equal to the postoperative stay; do not use them as postoperative ICU length.

Detail¶

Days from surgery to discharge are counted from the midnight of the case day to the discharge midnight. Of 1,204 cases with an ICU stay:

ICU days minus postoperative days	Cases	Emergency	In-hospital death	Median days before surgery
below 0 (expected)	1,167	21%	2%	2
0	6	67%	33%	8
1	17	65%	29%	2
2 or more	14	64%	57%	16.5

One of the 14 has an admission time about 42,650 days before surgery, a placeholder date rather than a stay.

Evidence¶

Study	Date	Status	Summary
Blood products, age and ICU days	2026-10-13	current	Red-cell and plasma units, age and ICU days are not heaped and get registry entries with a few flags rather than rounding models.