Pediatric Health Care in Family Practice

This paper describes the 32,926 health care problems of 9,117 pediatric patients visiting 12 Colorado family practices (4 rural, 3 urban, and 5 residency practices) over a one-year period. All 12 practices utilize the Family Medicine Information System (FMIS), a selectively automated system for storing and analyzing medical, family, and billing data. Age-sex distribution, visiting patterns, and morbidity are described for patients under 18 years of age. The 25 most frequent pediatric diagnoses account for 77 percent of visits, and 121 diagnoses account for 94 percent of pediatric visits. All diagnostic categories are explored in detail, and comparisons are made among urban, rural, and residency practices.