ArticleCMAJ open
Hospital outcomes of children admitted to intensive care in British Columbia via interfacility transfer versus direct admission from 2015 to 2017: a descriptive analysis.
Article in CMAJ open. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 4 citations in OpenAlex.
- Post-cardiac arrest care during transport from referral centers to a tertiary children's hospital.Resuscitation plus · 2026Article
- Socioeconomic Status, Rurality, and Pediatric Critical Care Admission.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Direct vs. redirected admission of critically ill children to PICU after interfacility transfer: a retrospective cohort study.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPediatric intensive care relies on having experienced and effective transport systems to transfer critically ill children to the appropriate centre for care. Our aim was to compare hospital outcomes among children admitted directly to a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) with those of children transferred from another facility.
methodsWe conducted a descriptive study using electronic medical records and the PICU database from the BC Children's Hospital. Patients admitted to the PICU from January 2015 to December 2017 were included. We excluded patients who were admitted electively, were admitted for recovery postoperatively, or had inconsistent or out-of-range addresses. We compared hospital mortality rates, use of mechanical ventilation within 24 hours of admission and length of PICU stay between children admitted directly from the BC Children's Hospital emergency department and those transferred from a referring institution.
resultsDuring the study period, there were 870 unique admissions comprising 386 direct admissions and 484 transferred patients. Transported patients were younger, were more critically ill on presentation and required longer stays. The proportions of children who died and of children who required mechanical ventilation within 24 hours of admission were higher in the transported group than in the group admitted directly from the emergency department (8.3% v. 3.9%,
interpretationMortality rate and use of intensive care resources were higher among children who were transported. Further research is needed to examine the key factors driving the differences in outcomes, including the severity of illness on first presentation, transport team composition, and transport distance and duration.
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