Does the time taken by the transport team to reach the bedside of a critically ill child impact on their outcome? A thread of key findings from our newly published @DEPICT_Study research investigating the transports of >9,000 children #PedsICU [1/7] 
If a child is critically ill & in a hospital without a paediatric intensive care unit, a transport team is sent to collect them. Teams aim to arrive with the child within three hours, a standard set by @PICSociety & decided by expert consensus [2/7]
But, is the three hour target appropriate? Well, currently ~87% of the time the target is met, so we can’t say much about those children who have to wait longer. But there seems to be no evidence that arriving faster is better for the child in terms of survival [3/7]
Why is this? Well, one potential reason is that the hospital requesting the child be moved to intensive care, is actually doing a good job of supporting them, at least in the short term. The child needs intensive care, but with support they keep the child stable [4/7]
We also looked at the number of days the child spent on a ventilator & in the intensive care unit. There was a slight increase in length of stay when the transport team took longer to reach the child. But we’d need to investigate this further to understand what it means [5/7]
Reducing the three hour target would involve significant service re-configuration - but we have no evidence to suggest a benefit in reducing it. Our study is also considering the experiences of parents, children & staff – so watch this space to hear more [6/7]
A huge thank you to all my co-authors & colleagues but especially @pic_pram @chrischirp. My work was excellently supported by Liz Draper in @TIMMSleicester. This work was a real labour of love & there’s more to come! You can read the full paper at: shorturl.at/uHLS0 [7/7]
