Pediatric and Adult Interfacility Transports: A Descriptive Comparison

OBJECTIVES AND BACKGROUND More than one-third of the pediatric population in the US lives over 50 miles from a pediatric hospital, necessitating interfacility transport to access definitive care. Additionally, pediatric transports are on the rise. The literature is scant regarding these transports or how they compare with adult interfacility transports. Our objective was to compare key demographic, transport, and clinical characteristics between adult and pediatric interfacility transports. METHODS This large retrospective cross-sectional study leverages the 2019 National Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Information System research dataset. This was queried for all interfacility transports. After excluding incomplete records, the dataset was split into adult (>17 years old) and pediatric (<18 years old) subsets before export to R 4.0.5 and Microsoft Excel to perform descriptive statistics. RESULTS The dataset contained 1 725 428 interfacility transports, of which 190 410 were with pediatric patients. Demographics were proportionally similar. Transport characteristics showed an increase in rotor- and fixed-wing operations and a significantly increased facility to facility time for pediatric patients. Pediatric patients tended to have more age-adjusted abnormal vital signs. Pediatric transports exhibited more respiratory, infectious, and behavioral concerns as compared with cardiovascular problems in adult transports. CONCLUSIONS These nuances offer areas of focus for clinical training, EMS curriculum, quality improvement projects, and future research opportunities. Next steps will aim to discern differences in clinical outcomes and investigate timestamp differences given these findings.