Referral pathways, ETAT triage acuity, and inpatient outcomes among children presenting to a national tertiary paediatric emergency unit in Ghana: a prospective cohort study

Emergency referral systems in sub-Saharan Africa are fragmented, and children reaching tertiary facilities through different referral pathways often arrive in advanced clinical states. Prospective data simultaneously characterising referral patterns, triage acuity at presentation, diagnostic case mix, and inpatient mortality at a national tertiary paediatric emergency unit are lacking from West Africa. This prospective cohort study enrolled 675 consecutively presenting children aged one month to 12 years at the Paediatric Emergency Unit of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Ghana, from February to December 2019. The primary outcome was all-cause inpatient mortality. Key variables collected included referral status and facility tier, Emergency Triage Assessment and Treatment (ETAT) triage category, ICD-10 diagnostic classification, Oyedeji socioeconomic classification, and time from symptom onset to PEU registration. Crude odds ratios were computed for all candidate predictors. Multivariable logistic regression was conducted using complete case analysis (n = 613). Of 675 children, 63.0% (n = 425) were referred from another health facility; referred children had higher ETAT emergency triage category rates than self-presenting children (32.7% vs 27.6%, p < 0.001). Overall inpatient mortality was 9.9% (67/675). Mortality varied by referral source: 16.7% among secondary/regional hospital referrals, 11.0% among lower-tier facility referrals (district, municipal, CHAG, polyclinic, private, health centre, and maternity home facilities combined, n = 356), 7.6% among self-presenting children, and 7.4% among tertiary referrals. Overall, 30.8% of children were classified as ETAT emergencies on arrival, with case fatility rate of 21.6%. The three most common diagnostic domains were respiratory conditions (17.2%), blood and haematological disorders (17.0%), and digestive presentations (16.4%). Inpatient mortality was highest in neoplastic disease (33.3%, n = 30) and circulatory presentations (31.0%, n = 29). In the primary multivariable analysis (n = 613, 51 events; events-per-variable ratio 4.2), no referral tier was independently associated with inpatient mortality after adjustment. Referral from secondary/regional hospitals showed a borderline non-significant association (adjusted odds ratio 3.09, 95% CI 0.96 to 9.90, p = 0.058). School going children (60-119 months) had higher odds of inpatient death than infants (adjusted odds ratio 5.56, 95% CI 1.16 to 26.53, p = 0.032), as did adolescents (adjusted odds ratio 10.01, 95% CI 2.15 to 46.69, p = 0.003). ETAT emergency category and lower socioeconomic status were not independently significant in this model. A pre-specified sensitivity analysis using the full analytic cohort (n = 674, events-per-variable ratio 6.7) with collapsed referral categories did not confirm any referral tier association; ETAT emergency category and lower SES were independently associated in the sensitivity model. All multivariable estimates should be regarded as exploratory. This prospective cohort provides simultaneous characterisation of referral patterns, ETAT triage acuity, diagnostic case mix, and inpatient mortality at a national tertiary paediatric emergency unit in West Africa. The referral-mortality gradient and high ETAT emergency category proportion document the severity of illness arriving through different referral pathways at this facility. The association between secondary/regional hospital referral and inpatient mortality is hypothesis-generating and requires replication in an adequately powered multicentre study before any service-level conclusions can be drawn.