Table 2.
Current triage and referral practices
| Dispensary | Health centre | Rural hospital | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Triage conducted | Yes | 27 (68%) | 279 (74%) | 84 (74%) |
| No | 10 (25%) | 66 (17%) | 16 (14%) | |
| Unsure | 3 (8%) | 33 (9%) | 13 (12%) | |
| Staff conducting triage (n = 390) | All staff | 16 (59%) | 163 (58%) | 53 (63%) |
| Clinical + non-clinical staff | 3 (11%) | 49 (18%) | 12 (14%) | |
| Clinical staff only | 4 (15%) | 34 (12%) | 7 (8%) | |
| Non-clinical staff only | 4 (15%) | 31 (11%) | 12 (14%) | |
| Triage approach (n = 390) | ETAT | 2 (7%) | 60 (22%) | 18 (21%) |
| IMCI danger sign | 10 (37%) | 80 (29%) | 17 (20%) | |
| Child’s appearance | 13 (48%) | 126 (45%) | 46 (55%) | |
| Caregiver indication | 2 (7%) | 13 (5%) | 3 (4%) | |
| Ever called an ambulance | Yes | 9 (23%) | 115 (30%) | 42 (37%) |
| No | 31 (78%) | 263 (70%) | 71 (63%) | |
| Three main reasons for not calling an ambulance (n = 365) | Quicker using own transport | No emergencies | Have their own transport | |
| Ambulances don’t go there | Quicker using own transport | No emergencies | ||
| Roads too bad | Ambulances don’t go there | No fuel | ||
| Three main reason for calling an ambulance (n = 166) | Malaria (78%) | Pneumonia (38%) | Pneumonia (29%) | |
| Pneumonia (11%) | Malaria (31%) | Anaemia (21%) | ||
| Anaemia (11%) | Anaemia (17%) | Accidents (12%) | ||
| Hours for ambulance to arrive (median; IQR) | 2 (1.5–3) | 3 (2–6) | 2 (0.5–4) | |
| Children seen per week (median; IQR) | 38 (13–195) | 20 (9–100) | 25 (10–100) | |
| Severe children seen per week (median; IQR) | 5 (2–20) | 5 (2–10) | 7 (4–20) | |
| Child referrals per week (median; IQR) | 2 (1–7) | 2 (1–5) | 2 (1–3) | |