A 10-year review of paediatric trauma inter-hospital retrieval patient outcomes in New South Wales (NSW), Australia

International studies report that paediatric trauma patients retrieved by paediatric specialist teams have a shorter length of hospital stay, reduced mortality and fewer adverse events during transport when compared with generalist adult teams.This 10-year retrospective review of prospectively collected databases and electronic medical records compares paediatric trauma inter-hospital transport patient morbidity and mortality outcomes in New South Wales, Australia, between the state-wide paediatric specialist team and other medical retrieval teams, paramedics and flight nurses. We hypothesised that the duration of IHT does not adversely affect patient outcomes and that retrieval by a dedicated paediatric retrieval team is associated with better patient outcomes.Nine-hundred and thirty-two paediatric trauma inter-hospital retrievals to a paediatric trauma centre were included for analysis in this study. The paediatric specialist team completed 74 % of these retrievals. Comparing the adult medical retrieval service (AMRS) with the paediatric specialist team, there was no difference in the odds of a patient being admitted to PICU (OR 1.003, 95 %CI 0.63-1.59, p = 0.99). The odds of admission to PICU were higher for patients with an ISS 16-24 (OR 2.6, 95 %CI 1.78-3.81, p = <0.001) or 25-75 (OR 5.3, 95 %CI 3.3-8.4, p = <0.001) when compared to those with an ISS less than 12. Similarly, there was no significant difference in hospital length of stay between retrieval providers.Both AMRS and paediatric specialist teams delivered equitable patient outcomes, with no difference in PICU admission rate or LOS, and no difference in hospital LOS. The question remains, how does the current model of care for IHT of paediatric trauma patients in NSW achieve equity between the different medical retrieval teams unlike the published international experiences?