title: [Compliance with the requirements of paediatric emergency departments in Spain: a self-assessment survey].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Paediatric emergency medicine in Spain is practiced in differently configured departments, staffing and organisation. Our goal was to determine the situation in Paediatric Emergency Departments (PED) and their adaptation to the quality standards proposed by the Spanish Society of Paediatric Emergencies.
  
  
  METHODS
  A self-assessment questionnaire on standards performance was sent to 47 PED directors by e-mail. It consisted of 101 items, 69 considered mandatory. According to the fulfilment of these 69 items 4 PED groups were selected: group I: in the best position (met 69), group II: requiring minimal changes (meeting 62-68), group III: requiring major changes (meeting 41-61); group IV: requiring a lot of major changes (meeting less than 41).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirty nine questionnaires were completed in full. The PED included in the study tended to an average of 35310 annual emergencies (5000-115000). No PED was included in group I, 6 in II 27 in III and 6 in IV. There was a tendency towards higher compliance with standards in larger PED, but there was no significant relationship between the number of emergencies and the number of items fulfilled.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  1. Staffing and architectural and organizational aspects may not be adequate to achieve optimal patient outcome in many PED in Spain. This fact does not appear to be related to the annual patient census. 2. The areas for improvement mainly affect functional issues that must be undertaken by those responsible. 3. A significant number of PED have serious architectural and staffing deficiencies, which would require economic measures by their managers. 4. Our self-assessment questionnaire identifies improvement actions.
authors.affiliation: Urgencias de Pediatría, Hospital de Cruces, Barakaldo-Bizkaia, España. jesus.sanchezechaniz@osakidetza.net
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sánchez Etxaniz
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Luaces I Cubells
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Benito Fernández
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000592:standards*; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006801:Humans; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000592:standards*; D013030:Spain; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires