Objective The objective of this study was to determine whether patients' families' violence-prevention behaviors would be affected by their primary care practitioner's use of a violence-prevention clinical intervention during the routine well-child examination. Methods In this cluster-randomized, controlled trial (2002–2006), 137 Pediatric Research in Office Settings practices were randomly assigned and initiated patient recruitment for either an office-based violence-prevention intervention or a control group (educational handout on literacy promotion provided). Primary caregivers of children who were aged 2 to 11 years and presented for a well-child visit were surveyed at baseline and 1 and 6 months. Practitioners were trained to (1) review a parent previsit summary regarding patient-family behavior and parental concern about media use, discipline strategies, and children's exposure to firearms, (2) counsel using brief principles of motivational interviewing, (3) identify and provide local agency resources for anger and behavior management when indicated, and (4) instruct patient-families on use of tangible tools (minute timers to monitor media time/timeouts and firearm cable locks to store firearms more safely where children live or play). Main outcomes were change over time in self-reported media use < 120 minutes per day, use of timeouts, and use of firearm cable locks. Results Generalized estimating equation analysis revealed a significant effect at 6 months for decreased media use and safer firearm storage. The intervention group compared with the control group showed an increase in limiting media use to < 120 minutes per day. There was no significant effect for timeout use. There was a substantial increase in storing firearms with cable locks for the intervention group versus a decrease for the control group. Conclusions This randomized, controlled trial demonstrated decreased media exposure and increased safe firearm storage as a result of a brief office-based violence-prevention approach.

Practitioners order urine tests selectively, focusing on younger and more ill-appearing infants and on those without an apparent fever source. Such selective urine testing, with close follow-up, was associated with few late UTIs in this large study. Urine testing should focus particularly on uncircumcised boys, girls, the youngest and sickest infants, and those with persistent fever.

Pediatric health care providers should identify parental practices and reinforce active media mediation strategies.

WHAT'S KNOWN ON THIS SUBJECT: Young adult smokers frequently encounter the health care system as parents coming in for their child' s medical visit. Child health care clinicians, however, do not typically provide smoking cessation assistance to parents. WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS:This national cluster-randomized trial demonstrates that a tobacco dependence intervention for parents can be effectively implemented in routine pediatric outpatient practice.abstract OBJECTIVE: To test whether routine pediatric outpatient practice can be transformed to assist parents in quitting smoking. METHODS:Cluster RCT of 20 pediatric practices in 16 states that received either CEASE intervention or usual care. The intervention gave practices training and materials to change their care delivery systems to provide evidence-based assistance to parents who smoke. This assistance included motivational messaging; proactive referral to quitlines; and pharmacologic treatment of tobacco dependence. The primary outcome, assessed at an exit interview after an office visit, was provision of meaningful tobacco control assistance, defined as counseling beyond simple advice (discussing various strategies to quit smoking), prescription of medication, or referral to the state quitline, at that office visit.RESULTS: Among 18 607 parents screened after their child' s office visit between June 2009 and March 2011, 3228 were eligible smokers and 1980 enrolled (999 in 10 intervention practices and 981 in 10 control practices). Practices' mean rate of delivering meaningful assistance for parental cigarette smoking was 42.5% (range 34%-66%) in the intervention group and 3.5% (range 0%-8%) in the control group (P , .0001). Rates of enrollment in the quitline (10% vs 0%); provision of smoking cessation medication (12% vs 0%); and counseling for smoking cessation (24% vs 2%) were all higher in the intervention group compared with the control group (P , .0001 for each). CONCLUSIONS:A system-level intervention implemented in 20 outpatient pediatric practices led to 12-fold higher rates of delivering tobacco control assistance to parents in the context of the pediatric office visit.

BackgroundPatient portals may improve communication between families of children with asthma and their primary care providers and improve outcomes. However, the feasibility of using portals to collect patient-reported outcomes from families and the barriers and facilitators of portal implementation across diverse pediatric primary care settings have not been established.ObjectiveWe evaluated the feasibility of using a patient portal for pediatric asthma in primary care, its impact on management, and barriers and facilitators of implementation success.MethodsWe conducted a mixed-methods implementation study in 20 practices (11 states). Using the portal, parents of children with asthma aged 6-12 years completed monthly surveys to communicate treatment concerns, treatment goals, symptom control, medication use, and side effects. We used logistic regression to evaluate the association of portal use with child characteristics and changes to asthma management. Ten clinician focus groups and 22 semistructured parent interviews explored barriers and facilitators of use in the context of an evidence-based implementation framework.ResultsWe invited 9133 families to enroll and 237 (2.59%) used the portal (range by practice, 0.6%-13.6%). Children of parents or guardians who used the portal were significantly more likely than nonusers to be aged 6-9 years (vs 10-12, P=.02), have mild or moderate/severe persistent asthma (P=.009 and P=.04), have a prescription of a controller medication (P<.001), and have private insurance (P=.002). Portal users with uncontrolled asthma had significantly more medication changes and primary care asthma visits after using the portal relative to the year earlier (increases of 14% and 16%, respectively). Qualitative results revealed the importance of practice organization (coordinated workflows) as well as family (asthma severity) and innovation (facilitated communication and ease of use) characteristics for implementation success.ConclusionsAlthough use was associated with higher treatment engagement, our results suggest that achieving widespread portal adoption is unlikely in the short term. Implementation efforts should include workflow redesign and prioritize enrollment of symptomatic children.ClinicalTrialClinicaltrials.gov NCT01966068; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01966068 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6i9iSQkm3)