SummaryIn 2003, Los Angeles County required the Los Angeles
County Emergency Medical Services Agency paramedics to use an
established tool (known as the Broselow® tape) to measure the
weight of children aged 12 years and younger to determine
correct drug dosing for resuscitation. Although the tape is a
well-known tool for determining pediatric medication doses, it
is not commonly used by paramedics in out-of-hospital emergency
situations. After the change, paramedics who used the tape
delivered correct epinephrine (adrenaline) doses to children
experiencing cardiac arrest 57 percent of the time, more than
twice the previous rate of 28-percent accuracy.Moderate: The
evidence consists of pre- and post-implementation comparisons of
dosing accuracy, which shows a clear link between the program
and improved results. The retrospective nature of the review
limited the analysis to data that had actually been recorded;
these data did not document the degree of communication between
paramedics and hospital ED personnel