Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Jan 1;41(1):50-62.
doi: 10.1097/PEC.0000000000003289. Epub 2024 Nov 8.

Caregiver Accompaniment in Pediatric Critical Care Transport: A Systematic Scoping Review

Matthew Yeung  1 , Tanya Spence, Dejana Nikitovic  1 , Eli Gilad
Affiliations

Caregiver Accompaniment in Pediatric Critical Care Transport: A Systematic Scoping Review

Matthew Yeung et al. Pediatr Emerg Care. .

Abstract

Context: Family-centered care is a critical component of critical care interfacility and medical retrieval transport (MRT) services. These services provide a critical bridge for a physiologically and psychologically unique population often best served in specialized, tertiary centers. Caregivers often wish to accompany patients during MRT. However, there is currently little research on the impact of caregiver accompaniment on MRT.

Objective: The aim of the study is to determine: 1) What are caregiver attitudes to accompanied and unaccompanied MRT? 2) What are healthcare provider attitudes to caregiver presence? 3) What are patient attitudes to caregiver presence? and 4) Are there differences in patient outcome depending on caregiver presence?

Data sources: Data sources are MEDLINE, Embase, and CINAHL.

Study selection: Studies with a focus on patient, caregiver, or family-oriented care practices in MRT. Reviewed articles were not restricted unless they discussed neonatal transport, palliative transport, were non-English, or were conference proceedings.

Data extraction: We screened 1373 articles, with 45 full-text articles reviewed. After removal of duplicates and abstract-only results, 25 articles remained. Three additional articles were found in references of reviewed articles.

Results: Articles generally supported caregiver presence on MRT, with caregivers and providers in agreement. However, for many services, space was a limiting factor controlling when caregivers could travel.

Limitations: There is a paucity of literature on this topic, and studies were entirely from English-speaking countries.

Conclusions: Caregivers and healthcare providers largely prefer caregiver accompaniment on MRT services. There is little data on patient perspectives and transport-related adverse events affecting patient outcomes.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure: Dr. Eli Gilad and Mrs. Tanya Spence are both members of the Alberta Children's Hospital Pediatric Critical Care Transport Team. Other members have no conflicts of interest to declare. Disclosure: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

    1. Bigham MT. More than a bus ride: quality and outcomes of paediatric specialty transport. Acta Paediatr . 2016;105:1335.
    1. Orr RA, Felmet KA, Han Y, et al. Pediatric specialized transport teams are associated with improved outcomes. Pediatrics . 2009;124:40–48.
    1. Moynihan K, McSharry B, Reed P, et al. Impact of retrieval, distance traveled, and referral center on outcomes in unplanned admissions to a national PICU. Pediatr Crit Care Med . 2016;17:e34–e42.
    1. Kawaguchi A, Gunz A, de Caen A. Cross-sectional survey of canadian pediatric critical care transport. Pediatr Emerg Care . 2019;35:32–37.
    1. Canadian Association of Paediatric Health Centres Competencies profile: interfacility critical care transport of maternal, neonatal, and paediatric patients: recommendations for a minimum set of standards . Available at: https://www.childrenshealthcarecanada.ca/neonatalpaediatric-transport-sy... . Accessed June 5, 2023.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources