McAuliffe, Eilish and Hamza, Moayed and McDonnell, Thérèse and Nicholson, Emma and De Brún, Aoife and Barrett, Michael and Brunsdon, Chris and Bury, Gerard and Collins, Claire and Deasy, Conor and Fitzsimons, John and Galligan, Marie and Hensey, Conor (2021) Children’s unscheduled primary and emergency care in Ireland: a multimethod approach to understanding decision making, trends, outcomes and parental perspectives (CUPID): project protocol. BMJ Open, 10 (e03672). ISSN 2044-6055

Preview

Download (547kB) | Preview

Abstract

Introduction: The aim of this project is to determine the patterns, decision-making processes and parental preferences associated with unscheduled paediatric healthcare utilisation in Ireland. Unscheduled paediatric healthcare is outpatient care provided within primary care settings by general practitioners (GPs), emergency departments (EDs) located in paediatric and general hospitals, and out-of-hours services provided by cooperatives of GPs operating on a regional basis. This project will take a multimethod approach to analysing the utilisation of unscheduled paediatric healthcare nationally within the context of a significant change to the provision of healthcare for young children in Ireland-the introduction of free at the point of delivery GP care for all children aged under 6. Methods and analysis: A multimethod approach consisting of three work packages will be employed. Using patient-level data, work package 1 will describe patterns of attendance at primary care, out-of-hours medical services and at EDs. Applying a difference-in-difference methodology, the impact of the introduction of free GP care for children under 6 on attendance will be assessed. Work package 2 will explore geospatial trends of attendance at EDs, identifying disparities in ED attendance by local area and demographic characteristics. Work package 3 will employ two discrete choice experiments to examine parental preferences for unscheduled paediatric healthcare and GP decision making when referring a child to the ED. The insights gained by each of the work packages individually and collectively will inform evidence-based health policy for the organisation of paediatric care and resource allocation. Ethics and dissemination: Ethical approval for this research has been granted by University College Dublin, The Irish College of General Practitioners and the five participating hospitals. Results will be disseminated via publication in peer-reviewed journals, national and international conferences, and to relevant stakeholders and interest groups.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Cite as: McAuliffe E, Hamza M, McDonnell T, et al Children’s unscheduled primary and emergency care in Ireland: a multimethod approach to understanding decision making, trends, outcomes and parental perspectives (CUPID): project protocol BMJ Open 2020; 10:e036729. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2019-036729
Keywords:	accident & emergency medicine; health policy; primary care;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Science and Engineering > Research Institutes > Hamilton Institute Faculty of Science and Engineering > Research Institutes > National Centre for Geocomputation, NCG Faculty of Social Sciences > Geography Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Institutes > Maynooth University Social Sciences Institute, MUSSI
Item ID:	14712
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-036729
Depositing User:	Prof. Chris Brunsdon
Date Deposited:	24 Aug 2021 13:51
Journal or Publication Title:	BMJ Open
Publisher:	BMJ Publishing Group
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

Repository Staff Only(login required)

Item control page

Downloads

Origin of downloads