Background: Intensive care units (ICU) are always nearly full capacity which makes admission very difficult and may affect patient’s outcome at times of shortage. Aim: To identify the variables capable of predicting which patient will benefit most from ICU admission, therefore prioritizing those patients when there is shortage of ICU beds. Methodology: Two-hundred and fifty cases were included in this study and were subjected to thorough history taking, meticulous clinical examination, laboratory and radiological investigations when needed. Results: Presence of system failure in patients included in this study, it was associated with a higher mortality (p<0.001) including respiratory, circulatory, neurological, hematological and/or metabolic failure.Patients with high risk (Two systems failure including circulatory and/or respiratory) had higher mortality while those with very high risk (>2 systems failure including both circulatory and respiratory) had the highest mortality (P values (survival): moderate & moderately-high versus high <0.001).Conclusion:Presence of system failure was associated with high mortality that increased with increasing the number of systems failure.
