Keywords
critical care
Kenya
resources
Introduction
Despite the large burden of critical care illness in low and middle income countries most of these countries lack published data on their ICU capacity. Landscaping of existing infrastructure, equipment and staffing is crucial in the planning, mobilization and resource allocation in healthcare systems.
Objectives
To describe the organization, staffing patterns and resources available in critical care units in Kenya. The secondary objective was to explore variations between units in the public and private sectors.
Methods
An online cross-sectional survey was used to collect data on organizational characteristics (model of care, type of unit, quality- related activities, use of electronic medical records and participation in the national ICU registry), staffing and available resources for monitoring, ventilation and general critical care.
Results
The survey included 60 units with 43% (n = 23) located in government facilities. A total of 598 critical care beds were with 26% beds being non functional. The nurse-to-bed ratio was predominantly 1:2. Capacity for high flow nasal therapy, invasive blood pressure measurement and capnography was low.
Discussion
The study found a rather even distribution of critical services between the public and the private sector, with narrow differences in organisation and available resources. We estimated an ICU-HDU bed capacity of 1.3 beds/100,000 people. Basic monitoring devices were available while access to more advanced monitoring techniques such as capnography, invasive blood pressure and cardiac output was very low.
Conclusion
The study showed an established critical care network in Kenya, in terms of staffing density, availability of basic monitoring and ventilation resources. Potential areas for improvement include training, use of invasive blood pressure and functionality of blood gas analysers.
References
1. Adhikari NKJ. Worldwide demand for critical care. Curr Opin Crit Care
