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2003 APR 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Maria G. Essig, MS, ELS, senior medical writer - Long waits in doctors' offices are an obstacle to universal pediatric influenza vaccination, according to a report published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Peter G. Szilagyi and colleagues at Strong Memorial Hospital, the University of Rochester and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention measured the time spent on check-in, clinical examination, and vaccination of 92 children who visited a doctor's office in 7 practices to receive an influenza vaccination.

The median duration of the office visit ranged from 9 minutes in suburban areas to 22 minutes in urban practices. Overall median duration was 145 minutes. Waiting constituted approximately 80% of the time spent at the office (Time spent by primary care practices on pediatric influenza vaccination visits - implications for universal influenza vaccination. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 2003;157(2):191-195).

Significant differences in the time spent in the waiting room and in the examination room were found for urban and suburban practices. Median waiting room time was 4 minutes for visits to suburban practices vs 8 minutes in urban practices (p

"Although the personnel time for influenza vaccination visits was short, there was substantial patient waiting and long occupancy of examination rooms," concluded Szilagyi and his coauthors. "If universal ...