title: The mastery of antidotes: A survey of antidote knowledge and availability among emergency physicians in registered hospitals in China.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe various types of Chinese hospitals' emergency department (ED) physicians' knowledge of antidotes and the comparative availability of toxicological treatments at these hospitals.
  
  
  METHODS
  We emailed a written survey to the ED doctors of 900 hospitals in China. The hospitals' names and addresses were obtained and randomly selected from the 6214 hospitals registered by the Chinese Medical Association. The survey included 23 questions on antidotes to commonly seen poisonings as well as questions on the availability of antidotes and decontamination techniques at each hospital.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Six hundred and fifty three hospital emergency directors responded to the survey 72.6% response rate). Overall knowledge of antidotes is not high and varied depending on antidote. Physicians in Eastern China, those working in tertiary-level hospitals and those working in hospitals with higher numbers of beds performed significantly better. On average, only 35.6% of the 23 antidotes were available in all reporting hospitals; 54.1% can get these antidotes from nearby hospitals and 42.0% can get them from a local CDC poison control center. However, only 57.3% can get a requested antidote within two hours. Gastric lavage is the most widely used decontamination procedure, and the availability of extracorporeal decontamination techniques is between 67.2% and 79.6% (depending on type).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Knowledge of specific antidotes correlated significantly with size, type, and region of hospital in China rather than with individual physician characteristics. Significant antidotes remain unavailable or unavailable within 2 h in about half of all hospitals surveyed, although all major acute decontamination treatments and techniques seem quite prevalent.
authors.affiliation: Emergency Department, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Emergency Department, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, United States.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Walline
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Emergency Department, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing, China pumchliyi@163.com.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Emergency Department, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D000931:Antidotes / Q000600:supply & distribution* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002681:China; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D004638:Emergency Treatment / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D011041:Poisoning / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*
chemical_list: D000931:Antidotes
keywords: Antidotes; China; availability; emergency department