"Epinephrine and atropine doses were incorrect up to 42%. Sedation and pain medication were incorrect up to 77%. succinylcholine incorrect up to 44%....56.5% of all drug dosages were incorrect.50.1% of paramedics did not administer a drug to pediatric patient.
(
www.michigan.gov/documents/mdch/Hoyle_pres_11_367667_7.pdf)
"Colorado Children’s Hospital conducted 272 pediatric simulations in a randomized cross-over trial evaluating the Handtevy Pediatric Box and found significant medication administration advantages over the current standard. Furthermore, in a post-simulation survey, the majority of participants perceived the Handtevy system as faster (91.1%), more accurate (88.2%) and preferable (91.1%). This research abstract will be presented at the 2014 NAEMSP Conference in January in Tucson, AZ."
(
http://www.emsworld.com/article/11259512/pediatric-drug-dosing)
"The Handtevy method was developed by Dr. Peter Antevy in response to the unacceptably high number of medication dosing errors; the popularity of the new method lies in using age instead of height to determine the weight of children and the proper dosage required. Antevy identified five categories of common patient ages and used an established formula to determine the average weight of children at these ages, which results in a 1 year old having an average weight of 10 kg; the scale increases by 2 year intervals and 5 kg for each category. In the final category, a 9 year old has an average weight of 30 kg using this method. The Handtevy method relies on these founding categories and simple math skills, resulting in quicker and more accurate medication dosages."
(
https://www.lifesavered.com/Blog/curbing-dosaging-mistakes-in-children.aspx)
"The AHA reported 94% of pediatrics who sustain a cardiac arrest out of hospital will not survive. Why such poor outcomes? A collaborative research team lead out of Children's Hospital of Minnesota submitted new data for publication which exposes a significant gap in epinephrine administration for out of hospital cardiac arrests in the pediatric population compared to adults (31% vs 80%). "
(
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/03/prweb11701924.htm)
"Broeslow vs Handtevy abstract was presented at NAESMP annual meeting in January. Results: 2x more likely to make a mistake administering dextrose with Broeslow then with Handtevy."
(
http://www.emsccolorado.org/uploads/CPPQC Minutes 2-11-14.docx)
"The 2010 Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) Guidelines state that length based tapes are more accurate then age based methods in the prediction of body weight. A pediatric age and length based hybrid estimation method ( HandTevy ) has been described to significantly improve accuracy in pre-hospital compared to the Broselow system. The Handtevy preformed statistically better for underweight, normal weight, and obese children. No difference was found for overweight children. "
(
http://www.pediatricemergencystandards.com/images/acep2014.pdf)
"The definition of medication error was non‐uniform across the studies. Dispensing and administering errors were the most poorly and non‐uniformly evaluated. Overall, the distributional epidemiological estimates of the relative percentages of paediatric error types were: prescribing 3–37%, dispensing 5–58%, administering 72–75%, and documentation 17–21%."
(
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2653149/#!po=0.609756)
I could go on, but If you want more info, you can search Dr. Peter Antevy, or the HandTevy system and get lots of results.
Dr. Antevy also received the Raymond Alexander Medical Director of the year award, for the creation of the HandTevy method. (
http://beforeitsnews.com/health/201...al-director-of-the-year-for-2014-2544364.html)
We can all have our preferences, but it's a little silly to say how bad of an idea it is to tell people this method When it has been proven to provide better outcomes. I'm aware not everyone has been exposed to this, and may not be open to ideas when they have figured out their own working system, but that doesn't make every other method sub par.
If it works, it works. And statistically, this method has worked better then people using drug calculations, or the Broeslow tape.