Objective : To analyze characteristics of our pediatric transport and to identify final orientation of transported children.
Methods : This was a prospective observational study of the activity of Emergency Care System including the
population aged from 0 to 14 years over a period of 12 months (January 2016 to December 2016). We analyzed
two types of intervention: primary and secondary. Data was collected by a standardized document used by all our
emergency mobile services (EMS) during pediatric transport.
Results : We included 422 patients. There were 73 primary interventions (17%) and 349 secondary interventions
(83%). The median age was equal to 2 years [0,7] and the sex ratio was 1.47 The distribution of calls noted a peak
in June and February (10% for each). For primary transport, the reason for medicalization was trauma in 44% of the
cases. Secondary transport requests came from peripheral hospitals in 58% of cases and reason for transport was a
respiratory distress in 49% of cases. During only 4% of secondary transport, our EMS teams were accompanied by a
pediatrician and we noted 45 complications (13%). Sixty-two percent of them were related to manipulation and 38%
were related to patients. Final orientation was pediatric emergency in 90% of primary intervention, and pediatric
intensive care unit in 56% of secondary intervention.
Conclusion : The use of standardized document to evaluate pediatric transport remains very helpful to identify
deficiencies. More effort should be made to reduce complications during secondary transport for a critically ill
children