Pediatricians’ Practice Site Preparedness for Infectious Disease Outbreaks and Natural Disasters

Sisk, Blake¹; Fisher, Margaret²; Houtrow, Amy J.³; O'Leary, Sean T.⁴; Somberg, Chloe¹; Needle, Scott⁵; Trevathan, Edwin⁶

1 American Academy of Pediatrics, Itasca, IL, United States.

2 Monmouth Medical Center, Long Branch, NJ, United States.

3 Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation , University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States.

4 Pediatrics, University of Colorado Anshutz Medical Campus, Aurora , CO, United States.

5 Elica Health Centers, Sacramento, CA, United States.

6 Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States.

Presented at the 2019 Pediatric Academic Societies Annual Meeting.

Background: Pediatricians play a crucial role in responding to disasters and disease outbreaks. However, little is known about pediatricians’ perceptions of their main practice site’s preparedness.

Objective: To examine pediatricians’ practice site preparedness for disease outbreaks and disasters.

Methods: Nationally representative 2018 Periodic Survey of American Academy of Pediatrics US members (including primary care physicians and neonatologists). Analysis restricted to post-residency respondents that provided direct patient care (analytic n=576). For both disasters and diseases, multivariable logistic regression models examined associations with having a preparedness plan at their practice site and reporting that their practice site is prepared (moderately/very vs not at all/slightly) to respond (controls: gender, age, specialty, setting, area, region, and hours worked).

Results: Response rate was 42% (672/1599). There were no differences in response by gender or region, but respondents were somewhat older than non-respondents (46.1 vs 42.2 years). About half of all respondents (Fig 1) affirmed that their main practice site has a preparedness plan for disease outbreaks (50%) and disasters (56%), while similar percentages reported their practice site is prepared to respond to disease outbreaks (57%)  and disasters (59%). Neonatologists were more likely than primary care pediatricians to report preparedness across all measures (p<.001).

In multivariable models (Table 1), respondents in medical schools/hospitals were more likely to report that their practice site has a preparedness plan for disease outbreaks (AOR=3.47, 95% CI=1.71-7.26). Characteristics associated with reporting having a disaster preparedness plan included neonatology subspecialty (2.52, 1.4-4.65) and working in group practice (3.52, 1.75-7.44) or a medical school/hospital (6.00, 2.8-13.44); Northeast respondents were less likely to report having a disaster preparedness plan (0.51, 0.28-0.92).

Characteristics associated with reporting that their practice site is prepared to respond to disease outbreaks included neonatology subspecialty (2.05, 1.11-3.91) and working in a medical school/hospital (3.48, 1.68-7.35); similar results were found for disaster preparedness.

Conclusion: While around half of pediatricians indicated their practice site is prepared for disasters and disease outbreaks and that there are preparedness plans, room for progress exists. Continued efforts are needed to increase preparedness, especially for primary care pediatricians.