Septic patients had a lower priority for ICU admission and longer waiting times for an ICU vacancy than patients with other critical conditions. Overall, this implied a 2.7-fold increased risk of mortality in septic patients.

The study analyzed 9,195 ICU requests; septic patients accounted for 1076 cases (11.7%), 293 (27.2%) of which were regarded as priority 1.

Priority 1 septic patients were more frequently hospitalized in the ICU than nonseptic patients (52.2% vs. 34.9%, p <  0.01). Septic patients waited longer for the vacancy, with a median delay time of 43.9 h (interquartile range 18.2–108.0), whereas nonseptic patients waited 32.5 h (interquartile range 11.5–75.8)—p <  0.01. Overall mortality was significantly higher in the septic group than in the group of patients with other indications for intensive care (72.3% vs. 39.8%, p <  0.01). This trend became more evident after the multivariate analysis, and the mortality odds ratio was almost three times higher in septic patients

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