• J Pershad, D Redden, and P Glaeser.
• Division of Emergency Medicine, LeBonheur Children's Medical Center, Memphis, Tennessee 38103, USA. poppy@netten.net
• Pediatr Emerg Care. 2000 Dec 1;16(6):391-3.

ObjectiveTo examine the level of involvement in pre-hospital care for children by faculty and fellows of teaching hospitals with a Pediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM) fellowship. In addition, we hypothesized that a divisional faculty member's involvement as principal investigator (PI) on an EMSC grant would not impact divisional involvement in on or off-line medical direction.MethodsDesignCross-sectional national survey.ParticipantsPEM fellowship directors.InterventionsSelf-administered questionnaire.StatisticsDescriptive and Chi-square analysis to study null hypothesis.ResultsThe response rate to the survey was 62% (53/85). Of the programs responding, 53 % provided on-line pediatric medical direction for pre-hospital providers, 77% were involved with paramedic education other than PALS, and 58% of systems had pediatric specific protocols. In 87 % of the programs, a designated faculty member functioned as an EMSC liaison. A division faculty member was or had been the PI on an EMSC grant in 18 programs (34%). There was no significant difference in the provision of on or off-line medical direction comparing programs with or without involvement in an EMSC grant. Only 34% of the responding program directors felt that the current level of exposure to EMS was adequate for PEM fellow training.ConclusionsThe current level of involvement in EMS of PEM faculty and fellows has significant room for improvement. It does not appear that grant support translates into increased local involvement in EMS. Current PEM fellowship curriculum guidelines for training in EMS are not being met by the majority of responding training programs.

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