P-KIDs CARE: An Intervention to Address Health Systems Delays to Care for Injured Children in Tanzania

What this Trial Is About

This research aims to develop and test a locally tailored intervention called P-KIDs CARE to improve the triage process for injured children in Tanzania. The study focuses on pediatric injury patients, family members, and healthcare providers in two health facilities in the Kilimanjaro Region. Researchers want to understand the barriers to timely care and improve assessment, stabilization, and referral processes to reduce delays in receiving definitive treatment. The P-KIDs CARE intervention includes two main parts: training healthcare providers with the World Health Organization's Basic Emergency Care Course, which uses presentations and hands-on practice, and an online decision support tool adapted for local needs. This tool incorporates models to assess mortality risk and assist with referral decisions. The intervention will be developed through workshops and refined with feedback from providers and community members before being piloted in the study facilities. Participants will include about 200 pediatric injury patients enrolled in a registry, 10 healthcare providers, and family members of patients. The study involves interviews, focus groups, surveys, and exit interviews to evaluate how feasible and acceptable the intervention is. Researchers will track outcomes like mortality, time to definitive care, patient disposition, and morbidity using tools such as the Glasgow Outcomes Scale-Extended Pediatrics. Data collection will occur over multiple years, including baseline and post-intervention periods separated by 1.5 years.

The P-KIDs CARE Health Systems Intervention in Tanzania