Abstract
Objective: To describe the caseload of children presenting to a children's hospital who later required transportation to access pediatric intensive care services.
Design: A retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data.
Setting: A university-affiliated secondary pediatric referral centre with 50 inpatient beds and a three bed high dependency unit.
Subjects: All patients transferred from January 1<sup>st</sup> 2006, through December 31<sup>st</sup> 2009.
Interventions: None.
Measurements and main Results: 167 children were transferred over the four year period. The number requiring transport has increased over the described time period. There was a wide variation in the length of time taken to obtain confirmation of the PICU bed availability (71 minutes, range 25-255 minutes in 2009), and the duration of the transport itself. All patients were accompanied by a physician and a registered pediatric nurse. Some children were transferred by two physicians (15% in 2009), and some by two nurses (37% in 2009).
Conclusions: Children presenting to a children's healthcare facility which does not provide critical care services may require transfer to another facility. As Ireland does not have a national or state-funded transport system for children, these transfers are carried by staff assigned to other clinical duties. This represents a significant demand on resources in the referring hospital, and is likely to be reflected in the experience of other community pediatric units.
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Tan, K., Crowe, S. 1444 Transport of Children without a State Structured Transport Program: The Experience of an Irish Children's Hospital. Pediatr Res 68 (Suppl 1), 713 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-201011001-01444
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-201011001-01444