The preparedness of pediatricians for emergencies in the office: what is broken, should we care, and how can we fix it?

Article Abstract:

The relative frequency that pediatricians encounter medical emergencies in their offices may warrant re-evaluating their emergency preparedness. Researchers surveyed 51 of 52 pediatric practices in an affluent suburban county about the medical emergencies seen in their practices and details about their emergency preparedness. The majority of the practices (82%) saw at least one emergency per month. The most common emergency was severe asthma episodes and 73% of the offices were equipped to deal with this emergency. Very few of these practices, however, met requirements for high-level preparedness as defined by available emergency equipment in the office and with staff adequately trained in emergency techniques. Many pediatricians claimed that equipping their office for emergencies would be too costly or time consuming. However, the cost for minimal equipment is $546.99 and for high-level equipment is $6037.22, most of which goes towards one-time equipment purchases. Life-support courses typically last 1-2 days.

Management, Medical care, Pediatric emergencies, Medical care utilization, Emergency management, Emergency preparedness

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On-line resources for pediatricians

Article Abstract:

On-line communications will play an ever growing role in medical care. Therefore, pediatricians should begin taking advantage of what is already available. On-line communications enable doctors to retrieve and disseminate information, to consult with colleagues on a one-to-one basis, and to participate in professional discussions. A computer with a modem is required for on-line communications. Two on-line resources are the Internet and direct-dial bulletin board systems (BBSs). The Internet can be accessed directly via certain software programs or through commercial on-line services. The Internet has e-mail, which permits users to send and receive personal messages to each other, and newsgroups, which are issue-based on-line discussions. There are also various techniques for locating and retrieving information. BBSs permit subscribers to post and retrieve messages and to participate in live discussions. The commercial on-line services also have resources of interest to doctors.

Internet, Pediatricians

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Pediatric Internet resources: creation and growth of the PEDINFO index

Article Abstract:

The PEDINFO pediatric Internet index has grown substantially since it was launched in Aug 1994. The index provides information about Web sites, electronic mailing lists and online discussion groups that focus on the health of children. In the first nine months of operation, the index grew from 7 kilobytes (KB) to 25 KB, then continued to grow significantly. About 100-200 users access the index each day, much of which is intended for patient or parent education. The quality of information varies, but almost half of surveyed Web sites are produced by medical professionals or institutions.

Pediatrics, Patient education, Health education, Internet/Web search services, Search engines

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