Abstract
Objective
The use of telemedicine has increased and may enhance the care of children during
medical transport. We aimed to evaluate the feasibility of synchronous telemedicine
connectivity before interfacility transport of critically ill children by a pediatric
transport team.
Methods
We performed a prospective, observational feasibility study of the introduction of
synchronous telemedicine into an established pediatric transport team from 2019 to
2020. The outcomes examined included connectivity, physician workload, transport team
satisfaction, and patient care outcomes.
Results
Among 118 eligible transports, telemedicine was considered in 23 transports (19%),
including 11 transports in which an attempt to connect was sought and 12 in which
telemedicine activation was offered but not attempted. The median connection time
was 2.9 minutes (interquartile range, 1.7-4.4 minutes), and clinical care was altered
in 1 case. Connection failed in 2 cases (18.2%). In 50% of cases, concurrent medical
control physician workload prevented activation. There were no perceived benefits
in 41.7% of cases. Team members indicated the desire for future telemedicine use in
only 54.6% of cases.
Conclusions
We found low utilization of synchronous telemedicine in interfacility pediatric transport.
The identified barriers included reliable connectivity, physician workload, and low
perceived benefit. Lessons learned and future research suggestions are presented to
mitigate these barriers.
Abbreviations:
PedTT (Pediatric specialty transport team), PICU (Pediatric intensive care unit)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: April 08, 2022
Footnotes
Supported by a Noaber grant through the Mayo Clinic Center for Connected Care on behalf of the Noaber Foundation.
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Air Medical Journal Associates. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
