Outpatient encounters, continuity of care, and unplanned hospital care for children and young people with cerebral palsy

Continuity of care is an important measure of health care quality. It shows how much care is provided by the same healthcare professional or team. This research study from Australia looked at continuity of care provided by hospital outpatient services for children and young people with cerebral palsy (CP).

The study included 3267 children and young people with CP, born between 1994 and 2018, identified from the New South Wales/Australian Capital Territory Cerebral Palsy Register. It examined their outpatient visits and assessed whether these visits were linked to unplanned hospital care (emergency department visits and unplanned hospital admissions) from 2015 to 2020.