General practitioner perspectives on a shared-care model for paediatric patients post-intensive care: A...

While paediatric critical illness mortality rates in Australia are declining, the growing cohort of paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) survivors means an increasing number of children facing substantial health challenges after their discharge from intensive care. General practitioners (GPs) play a key role in provision of comprehensive health care to children and families and are ideally positioned to provide developmental surveillance and support the care of both the child and family following critical illness.

An anonymous, cross-sectional survey of 60 GPs, reached via private invitation (19% response) or via social media weblink, was conducted where the GPs were asked about their current confidence and knowledge in managing children post PICU. This included awareness of short- and long-term problems, of paediatric intensive care syndrome in paediatrics (PICS-p), and of educational materials. Lastly, a parent-completed screening questionnaire and shared-care pathway were proposed to GPs for their feedback on perceived benefit and willingness to participate. Data were analysed using frequency distributions and chi-square statistics.

Ninety-three percent of GPs had some level of confidence in caring for a child post PICU admission and low confidence in their knowledge of potential short- and long-term complications. Eighty percent of GPs had not heard of PICS-p, and 93% were unaware of educational materials available on this topic. Ninety-five percent of GPs perceived that the proposed patient-screening tool and shared-care pathways would be beneficial, and 70% predicted that they would definitely use educational materials if accessible through GP central repositories.

To reduce ongoing health problems for children recovering from critical illness, the family GP plays a pivotal role in providing community-level developmental care, particularly in Australia. Increasing GP confidence and knowledge through education is essential, and using a parent-completed screening questionnaire and shared-care pathway to improve care may be beneficial. GPs must also be involved in the implementation stages of future shared-care models.