ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To describe a unique experience providing critical care to infants and children in Haiti 3 months after a major earthquake. DESIGN: Observational. SETTING: Field medical facility in a developing country. PATIENTS: Infants and children admitted to a combined neonatal and pediatric intensive care unit between April 17 and 24, 2010. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Nine infants and 20 children were admitted to an intensive care unit with eight cots and ten infant beds over a 1-wk period. Central nervous system and infectious diseases were the most common reasons for intensive care unit admission. Nine of 20 (45%) children died before hospital discharge. Survivors represented a cohort of children with acute, reversible disease. CONCLUSIONS: Pediatric critical care can be implemented in low-income countries but requires significant resource use and careful patient selection. Consideration should be paid to the costs of delivering critical care in developing countries, which can inadvertently appropriate resources that have a larger impact on pediatric public health.
Subject(s)
Critical Care/organization & administration , Intensive Care Units, Pediatric/organization & administration , Adolescent , Child , Child, Preschool , Critical Care/statistics & numerical data , Developing Countries , Disasters , Earthquakes , Female , Haiti , Humans , Infant , Infant, Newborn , Intensive Care Units, Pediatric/statistics & numerical data , Male , ObservationABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: A disparity in access to health care exists between rural and urban areas. Although 21% of children in the United States live in rural areas, only 3% of pediatric intensivists practice in rural areas. In an attempt to address this issue, we implemented a program of pediatric critical care telemedicine consultations in rural emergency departments (EDs) and report our results. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A prospective evaluation of pediatric critical care consultations in rural EDs was undertaken March 2006 through March 2008. A referral area with a population of 1,000,000 in 19 rural counties in Vermont and upstate New York comprised the study area. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Sixty-three telemedicine consultations were performed in 10 rural EDs. The average number of consultations was 6.3 per site (range 2-17). Minor technical issues were identified in 18 consultations (29%). There were 12 primary diagnoses. Telemedicine was used to supervise the critical care transport team on 25 occasions (40%). Consulting intensivists made 236 specific recommendations. Consulting intensivists thought that telemedicine consultations improved patient care 89% of the time, were superior to telephone consultations 91% of the time, and provided good to very good provider-to-provider communications 98% of the time. Referring providers reported that telemedicine consultations improved patient care 88% of the time, were superior to telephone consultations 55% of the time, and provided good to very good communications 94% of the time. CONCLUSIONS: With telemedicine, it is feasible to provide urgent subspecialty critical care for children in underserved rural EDs, improve patient care, and provide a high degree of provider satisfaction. Pediatric critical care telemedicine may help to address the disparities in the access to and the outcome of medical care between rural and urban areas.
