The availability spatial accessibility service utilisation and retrieval cost of paediatric intensive care services for children in rural regional and remote Queensland: study protocol

摘要

BackgroundSpecialist health services are often organised on a regionalised basis whereby clinical resources and expertise are concentrated in areas of high population. Through a high volume caseload, regionalised facilities may provide improved clinical outcomes for patients. In some cases, regionalisation may be the only economically viable way to organise specialist care. While regionalisation may have benefits, it may also disadvantage some population groups, particularly in circumstances where distance and time are impediments to access.Queensland is a large Australian state with a distributed population. Providing equitable access to specialist healthcare services to the population is challenging. Specialist care for critically ill or injured children is provided by the Queensland Paediatric Intensive Care Service which comprises two tertiary paediatric intensive care units. The two units are located 6 km (3.7 miles) apart by road in the state capital of Brisbane and provide state-wide telephone advice and specialist retrieval services. Services also extend into the northern area of the adjacent state of New South Wales. In some cases children may be managed locally in adult intensive care units in regional hospitals.The aim of this study is to describe the effect of geography and service organisation for children who need intensive care services but who present outside of metropolitan centres in Queensland.