Emergency rural obstetric transfers in South Australia: a review of the clinical and precipitating factors.

CONCLUSION: This study suggests that the rural doctor workforce in the Riverland region appears to be well skilled at identifying obstetric emergencies despite the lack of guidance around what constitutes a high risk perinatal situation. Furthermore, this study quantifies the number of women who would potentially require support services associated with rural perinatal transfers from this area. There was a comparatively lower rate of delivery on transfer and, as such, these women eventually delivered their babies either at their hospital of origin or returned to a metropolitan hospital as part of a planned admission for delivery. Further research is needed about the practical implications of transferring pregnant women to tertiary centres and clinical decision-making tools to improve this process. PMID: 30721624 [PubMed - in process]
Source: Rural and Remote Health - Category: Rural Health Tags: Rural Remote Health Source Type: research