Clinical and organizational framework of repurposing pediatric intensive care unit to adult critical care in a resource-limited setting: Lessons from the response of an urban general hospital to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Purpose: We aim to describe the action plan and clinical results of a COVID-19 unit for adult patient care in units intended for critically ill children, proposing a clinical/administrative framework.

Methods: We reviewed the preparedness of the PICU team before the surge of cases of COVID-19 and the organizational/administrative issues to increase critical beds in a six-bed PICU allocated to adult critical care in a government-funded general hospital in Latin America. We analyzed the prospectively collected administrative/clinical data of severe COVID-19 cases admitted to PICU during the peak of the first wave of the pandemic.