The role of contextual factors in decision-making by General Practitioners on paediatric referral to the Emergency Department: A Discrete Choice Experiment

<p>A General Practitioner&rsquo;s (GP) decision to refer a patient to the emergency department (ED) requires consideration of a multitude of factors, and significant variation in GP referral patterns to secondary care has been recorded. This study examines the contextual factors that influence GPs when referring a paediatric patient with potentially self-limiting clinical symptoms to the ED.</p> <p>Utilizing a discrete choice experiment, survey data was collected from GPs in Ireland (n = 142) to elicit factors influencing this decision across five attributes: time/day of visit, repeat presentation, parents&rsquo; capacity to cope, parent requesting a referral, and access to a paediatric outpatient clinic/day unit.</p> <p>Using mixed logit models, all attributes were statistically significant, with repeat presentation and parents lacking the capacity to cope with a sick child identified as the strongest contextual factors leading to the decision to refer to the ED.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Files explained:</p> <p>1. Survey Questions.docx details the survey.</p> <p>2. Ngene DCE design.ngd:&nbsp;&nbsp;Ngene&trade; file used to set-up the DCE.</p> <p>3. Survey Data File.xlsx is the source file detailing responses to the survey.</p> <p>4. Stata Data File Formatted for DCE.dta is the file formatted for the DCE for analysis</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Note:</p> <p><em>Data collection for a second survey for a patient with intellectual disability and limited communication skills was carried out at the same time as this survey.&nbsp; Data from this second study (Q4.1 &ndash; Q4.7 &amp; Q6.1 &ndash; Q6.7) are not included in these files. </em></p>