What are the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs regarding concussion of primary care physicians and family resident physicians in rural communities?

Background Primary care physicians and family medicine resident physicians report continued gaps in knowledge when diagnosing and managing pediatric patients with concussion. Methods A cross-sectional electronic survey of 130 primary care physicians and family medicine resident physicians in the Northeastern Ontario Local Health Integration Network (LHIN). Descriptive statistics, chi-squared Fisher exact tests, were used to compare physicians versus resident physicians with two-tailed p < 0.05 (with 95% confidence intervals). Results With a 48% response rate, when treating concussions 44% of providers either did not use any specific clinical practice guideline, standardized assessment tool, could not recall the source of a specific tool/guideline or omitted answering the question. However, 61% of all respondents would refer some or all concussion patients to a specialist for treatment. At least 41% of providers indicated they lacked access to a ‘Provider Decision Support Tool’ specific to concussion, and 88% of the 25 providers were without access to discharge instructions. Conclusion Similar to other jurisdictions, Northeastern Ontario primary care physicians and family medicine resident physicians report gaps in knowledge for both diagnosis and management of pediatric concussion. Consequently, they did not use current guidelines or best practices to guide management.