Interrupted care. The effects of paging on pediatric resident activities.

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.