Patterns of presentation to a Children’s Hospital Emergency Department of patients with autism and/or intellectual disability with behaviours of concern

ABSTRACT

Background

The aim of this study was to investigate the demographic, clinical characteristics, and service systems of patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and/or intellectual disability presenting to a large paediatric hospital emergency department (ED) with behaviours of concern (BOC) over a two-year period.

Method

Retrospective audit of ED presentations with BOC in patients with ASD and/or intellectual disability from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2020, at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Australia.

Results

There were 124 presentations (84 patients) in 2019 and 129 presentations (82 patients) in 2020. The mean age was 11.7 years. 55% arrived by ambulance, 24% required physical restraint, and 26% required sedation. Re-presentation was predicted by single-parent household, child protection involvement, and requirement of an interpreter.

Conclusions

Children and adolescents with ASD and/or intellectual disability regularly present to ED with BOC. New models of care are required to better support this highly vulnerable patient group.

KEYWORDS:

• Autism spectrum disorder
• intellectual disability
• behaviours of concern

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Bodo Ballhaus for advice on EMR data retrieval, and Suzanna Vidmar for support with statistical analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Victoria Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Disability.