National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: terrorism preparedness among office-based physicians, United States, 2003-2004.

Objectives: This investigation describes terrorism preparedness among U.S. office-based physicians and their staffs in identification and diagnosis of terrorism-related conditions, training methods and sources, and assistance with diagnosis and reporting.

Methods: The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) is an annual national probability survey of approximately 3,000 U.S. nonfederal, office-based physicians. Terrorism preparedness items were added in 2003 and 2004.

Results: About 40 percent of physicians or their staffs received training for anthrax or smallpox, but less than one-third received training for any of the other exposures. About 42.2 percent of physicians, 13.5 percent of nurses, and 9.4 percent of physician assistants and nurse practitioners received training in at least one exposure. Approximately 56.2 percent of physicians indicated that they would contact state or local public health officials for diagnostic assistance more frequently than federal agencies and other sources. About 67.1 percent of physicians indicated that they would report a suspected terrorism-related condition to the state or local health department, 50.9 percent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 27.5 percent to the local hospital, and 1.8 percent to a local elected official's office. Approximately 78.8 percent of physicians had contact information for the local health department readily available. About 53.7 percent had reviewed the diseases reportable to health departments since September 2001, 11.3 percent had reviewed them before that month, and 35 percent had never reviewed them.