Interrupted care. The effects of paging on pediatric resident activities
N. J. Blum and T. A. Lieu
Department of Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia.
OBJECTIVE--To determine the content and urgency of pages and their effect
on the activities of pediatric residents. DESIGN--Prospective survey.
SETTING--University-affiliated teaching hospital. PARTICIPANTS--Seventeen
pediatric residents on regular pediatric services. INTERVENTIONS--None.
MEASUREMENTS/MAIN RESULTS--On daily logs, interns recorded the activity
interrupted by a page and rated the urgency and importance of the page.
Almost half of all pages interrupted patient care activities, and 24%
interrupted scheduled work rounds or teaching conferences. Interns reported
that 34% of pages resulted in a change in patient treatment, but they rated
25% of all pages as unimportant. CONCLUSIONS--"Beepers" frequently
interrupt pediatric residents involved in patient care activities and
scheduled educational conferences. Studies of interventions aimed at
decreasing unnecessary interruptions by pages are needed.
