Interventions in primary and community care to reduce urgent paediatric hospital admissions: systematic review. 2023

Smita Dick, and Clare MacRae, and Claire McFaul, and Philip Wilson, and Stephen W Turner
Department of Child Health, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK.

There has been a rise in urgent paediatric hospital admissions and interventions to address this are required. To systemically review the literature describing community (or non-hospital)-based interventions designed to reduce emergency department (ED) visits or urgent hospital admissions. MEDLINE, Embase, OVIS SP, PsycINFO, Science Citation Index Expanded/ISI Web of Science (1981-present), the Cochrane Library database and the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and before-and-after studies. Individuals aged <16 years. Papers were independently reviewed by two researchers. Data extraction and the Critical Appraisals Skills Programme checklist was completed (for risk of bias assessment). Seven studies were identified. Three studies were RCTs, three were a comparison between non-randomised groups and one was a before-and-after study. Interventions were reconfiguration of staff roles (two papers), telemedicine (three papers), pathways of urgent care (one paper) and point-of-care testing (one paper). Reconfiguration of staff roles resulted in reduction in ED visits in one study (with a commensurate increase in general practitioner visits) but increased hospital admissions from ED in a second. Telemedicine was associated with a reduction in children's admissions in one study and reduced ED admissions in two further studies. Interventions with pathways of care and point-of-care testing did not impact either ED visits or urgent admissions. New out-of-hospital models of urgent care for children need to be introduced and evaluated without delay. CRD42021274374.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D002648 Child A person 6 to 12 years of age. An individual 2 to 5 years old is CHILD, PRESCHOOL. Children
D004636 Emergency Service, Hospital Hospital department responsible for the administration and provision of immediate medical or surgical care to the emergency patient. Emergency Outpatient Unit,Emergency Services Utilization,Hospital Emergency Room,Hospital Emergency Service,Hospital Emergency Services Utilization,Accident and Emergency Department,Emergency Departments,Emergency Hospital Service,Emergency Room,Emergency Units,Emergency Ward,Hospital Service Emergency,Service, Hospital Emergency,Department, Emergency,Departments, Emergency,Emergencies, Hospital Service,Emergency Department,Emergency Hospital Services,Emergency Outpatient Units,Emergency Room, Hospital,Emergency Rooms,Emergency Rooms, Hospital,Emergency Services, Hospital,Emergency Unit,Emergency Wards,Emergency, Hospital Service,Hospital Emergency Rooms,Hospital Emergency Services,Hospital Service Emergencies,Hospital Service, Emergency,Hospital Services, Emergency,Outpatient Unit, Emergency,Outpatient Units, Emergency,Room, Emergency,Room, Hospital Emergency,Rooms, Emergency,Rooms, Hospital Emergency,Service Emergencies, Hospital,Service Emergency, Hospital,Service, Emergency Hospital,Services Utilization, Emergency,Services Utilizations, Emergency,Services, Emergency Hospital,Services, Hospital Emergency,Unit, Emergency,Unit, Emergency Outpatient,Units, Emergency,Units, Emergency Outpatient,Utilization, Emergency Services,Ward, Emergency,Wards, Emergency
D006760 Hospitalization The confinement of a patient in a hospital. Hospitalizations
D006776 Hospitals, Pediatric Special hospitals which provide care for ill children. Pediatric Hospitals,Hospital, Pediatric,Pediatric Hospital
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000818 Animals Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA. Animal,Metazoa,Animalia
D012756 Sheep Any of the ruminant mammals with curved horns in the genus Ovis, family Bovidae. They possess lachrymal grooves and interdigital glands, which are absent in GOATS. Ovis,Sheep, Dall,Dall Sheep,Ovis dalli
D015982 Bias Any deviation of results or inferences from the truth, or processes leading to such deviation. Bias can result from several sources: one-sided or systematic variations in measurement from the true value (systematic error); flaws in study design; deviation of inferences, interpretations, or analyses based on flawed data or data collection; etc. There is no sense of prejudice or subjectivity implied in the assessment of bias under these conditions. Aggregation Bias,Bias, Aggregation,Bias, Ecological,Bias, Statistical,Bias, Systematic,Ecological Bias,Outcome Measurement Errors,Statistical Bias,Systematic Bias,Bias, Epidemiologic,Biases,Biases, Ecological,Biases, Statistical,Ecological Biases,Ecological Fallacies,Ecological Fallacy,Epidemiologic Biases,Experimental Bias,Fallacies, Ecological,Fallacy, Ecological,Scientific Bias,Statistical Biases,Truncation Bias,Truncation Biases,Bias, Experimental,Bias, Scientific,Bias, Truncation,Biase, Epidemiologic,Biases, Epidemiologic,Biases, Truncation,Epidemiologic Biase,Error, Outcome Measurement,Errors, Outcome Measurement,Outcome Measurement Error

Related Publications

Smita Dick, and Clare MacRae, and Claire McFaul, and Philip Wilson, and Stephen W Turner
April 2012, Archives of disease in childhood,
Smita Dick, and Clare MacRae, and Claire McFaul, and Philip Wilson, and Stephen W Turner
February 2006, Quality & safety in health care,
Smita Dick, and Clare MacRae, and Claire McFaul, and Philip Wilson, and Stephen W Turner
July 2020, BMJ open,
Smita Dick, and Clare MacRae, and Claire McFaul, and Philip Wilson, and Stephen W Turner
January 2019, PloS one,
Smita Dick, and Clare MacRae, and Claire McFaul, and Philip Wilson, and Stephen W Turner
December 2011, The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners,
Smita Dick, and Clare MacRae, and Claire McFaul, and Philip Wilson, and Stephen W Turner
July 2016, JAMA psychiatry,
Smita Dick, and Clare MacRae, and Claire McFaul, and Philip Wilson, and Stephen W Turner
April 2017, BMC health services research,
Smita Dick, and Clare MacRae, and Claire McFaul, and Philip Wilson, and Stephen W Turner
October 2022, European journal of emergency medicine : official journal of the European Society for Emergency Medicine,
Smita Dick, and Clare MacRae, and Claire McFaul, and Philip Wilson, and Stephen W Turner
June 1971, Lancet (London, England),
Smita Dick, and Clare MacRae, and Claire McFaul, and Philip Wilson, and Stephen W Turner
November 1951, British medical journal,
Copied contents to your clipboard!