Medical complications in a telemedicine home care programme for paediatric ventilated patients.

INTRODUCTION: Advances in paediatric medicine have increased survival rates for patients with severe chronic illnesses, of which the most complex are ventilator-dependent children (VDCs). Although home care improves their quality of life, morbidity and mortality rates are high. Our aim was to study the medical complications (events) that occur at home and assess the usefulness of telemedicine in their detection and treatment. METHODS: A prospective clinical study (2007-2017) was performed for tracheotomised VDCs. We used a high-density data telemedicine monitoring system from our Paediatric Intensive Care Unit and analysed events during the first two years of home care to study how different variables inter-correlated with the four most common ones: hospital admissions, admissions avoided, event durations and life-threatening events (LTEs); the significance level was set at an alpha of 0.05 in all cases. RESULTS: All our VDCs were included (n = 12); there were 141 events, and these were homogeneously distributed over the study period. The incidence was higher in children who were ventilator dependent for more than 12 h a day (70.9%, p < 0.001) and the main cause was respiratory (69.5%, p < 0.001). Telemedicine was the main initial care and monitoring approach (86.5% and 90.1%, respectively, p < 0.001); 13 events were LTEs, nine were resolved telemedically, four required medicalised transfer to hospital and three resulted in a hospital admission. DISCUSSION: Clinical complications are frequent in VDCs receiving home care, and respiratory decompensation is the most frequent cause. Telemedicine facilitated diagnosis and early treatment, and was useful in managing LTEs.

Usefulness of telemedicine for home ventilator-dependent children.

INTRODUCTION: Medical care for ventilator-dependent children must avoid hospital confinement, which is detrimental to the patient, their family and Paediatric Intensive Care Unit. Our objective was to assess the role of telemedicine in facilitating early and permanent discharge of such patients to home care. METHODS: This was a prospective clinical study (2007-2017) in tracheotomised ventilator-dependent children. We used a Big Data Telemedicine home system (Medlinecare 2.1) from the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit. Specialised home-nursing services were available. Clinical events were analysed using the Chi-square test (significance p < 0.05). Families subsequently completed a satisfaction survey. The Paediatric Intensive Care Unit management indicators were analysed. RESULTS: All of our ventilator-dependent children were included (n=12). At time of discharge from the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, they all required continuous mechanical ventilation and met the criteria of groups I-III of the OTA classification. In the first two years there were 141 events; the main cause was respiratory (69.5%, p < 0.001) and telemedicine was the main care approach (86.5%, p < 0.001). Eleven events required hospitalisation (7.8%) but 38 (27.0%) hospitalisations were avoided. The emergency readmission time accounted for 0.99% of the total time. Six patients were decannulated, and one patient died due to primary cardiac arrest. All the families considered that the telemedicine had helped to avoid hospital visits, was not an intrusion into their privacy, and improved the child's safety and quality of life. An improvement in Paediatric Intensive Care Unit indicators was achieved. DISCUSSION: Telemedicine facilitated early and permanent discharge of our ventilator-dependent children to home care without affecting their quality of care.