Objective To explore factors affecting the shunt safety of patients in emergency intensive care unit (EICU), construct a shunt safety evaluation model, and evaluate its prediction effectiveness, so as to provide a theoretical basis for the decision-making of shunt safety in EICU. Methods The demographic data, vital signs, laboratory examinations and other indicators of patients transferred to the general ward from the EICU of West China Hospital of Sichuan University from 0:00 on August 1, 2019 to 23:59 on May 31, 2021 were collected and analyzed. The short-term poor prognosis after being transferred out of the EICU was regarded as the end-point event. Of the patients, 70% were randomly selected as the model construction cohort, and 30% were the model validation cohort. In the model construction cohort, multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to screen the influencing factors affecting shunt safety, and the shunt safety evaluation model of patients in EICU was constructed. In the validation cohort, receiver operating characteristic curve was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the model in evaluating the shunt safety of patients in EICU. Results A total of 582 patients were included, of whom 59 patients (10.1%) had a poor short-term prognosis. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the patients’ respiratory rate when leaving the EICU [odds ratio (OR)=0.863, 95% confidence interval (CI) (0.794, 0.938), P=0.001], Glasgow Coma Scale scores [OR=1.575, 95%CI (1.348, 1.841), P<0.001], albumin [OR=1.137, 95%CI (1.008, 1.282), P=0.036], prothrombin time [OR=0.956, 95%CI (0.914, 1.000), P=0.048] were the influencing factors of shunt safety. Based on the above indicators, a shunt safety evaluation model for patients in EICU was created. The area under the curve for the shunt safety assessment model to predict poor short-term prognosis was 0.815, the best cut-off value was 4 points, the sensitivity was 93.3%, and the specificity was 61.5%. Conclusions The patients’ respiratory rate when leaving EICU, Glasgow Coma Scale scores, albumin and prothrombin time are factors affecting the shunt safety for patients in EICU. The shunt safety assessment model can better predict the short-term poor prognosis of patients transferred from EICU to general ward.