Background: Paediatric admissions to an intensive care unit (ICU) outside of a children’s hospital are generally not included in studies based on paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) registry data. Furthermore, PICU registry studies rarely include outcome data beyond discharge from the PICU or hospital.
Objective: To compare paediatric admission to specialist paediatric intensive care units (PICU) with paediatric admission to intensive care units (ICU) in general hospitals in an Australian population.
Methods: We undertook a population-based record linkage cohort study utilising longitudinally-linked hospital and mortality data for paediatric hospitalisations in New South Wales, Australia from 2010-2013. The study population included all new paediatric post-neonatal hospital admissions that included time in ICU (excluding neonatal ICU).
Results: Of 498,466 paediatric hospitalisations, 7525 (1.5%) included time in an intensive care unit [93.7% to PICU and 6.3% to ICU in a general (non-PICU) hospital]. Non-PICU admissions were of older children, in rural areas, with shorter stays in ICU, more likely admitted for acute conditions such as asthma, injury or diabetes, and less likely to have chronic conditions, receive continuous ventilatory support, blood transfusion, parenteral nutrition or die.
Conclusion: A substantial proportion of children are admitted to ICUs in general hospitals. A comprehensive overview of paediatric ICU admissions includes these admissions and the context of the total hospitalisation.