Informing diversion strategy: A comparison of parent and general practitioner-referred paediatric patients presenting to a metropolitan hospital

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the characteristics and outcomes of parent-referred children differ substantially from general practitioner (GP)-referred children attending a metropolitan ED. METHODS: Prospective cross-sectional observational study of consecutive patients aged less than 16 years of age attending a mixed adult and paediatric metropolitan teaching hospital ED in Melbourne. Data collected included patient characteristics (age, sex, arrival mode and triage category) and outcomes (admission, specialty consultation, treatment time >1 h, intravenous or nasogastric therapy, procedural sedation, procedures, imaging studies and pathology collection). RESULTS: The outcome data of 4580 ..