HEPATITIS-B VIRUS SEROLOGY IN PREGNANT-WOMEN - TRANSMITTAL OF RESULTSFROM OBSTETRICIANS TO PEDIATRICIANS IN CALIFORNIA

From late 1992 to early 1993, in order to assess the knowledge, attitu des and practice patterns of California obstetricians regarding hepati tis B virus screening of pregnant women and how maternal hepatitis B v irus serologies are communicated by obstetricians to pediatricians, we mailed questionnaires to a random sample of 801 California obstetrici ans and 1030 California pediatricians, Response rates were 65.7% (526) for obstetricians and 71% (732) for pediatricians, Although 99.8% of the surveyed obstetricians indicated that they routinely screened all pregnant women for hepatitis B virus, their knowledge of the correct s creening tests to order and their interpretation was mixed, Only 56.3% (95% confidence interval, 51.2 to 61.2) were aware of the California law and approximately 12% did not understand that it mandated universa l screening of pregnant women, There was a great difference of opinion between obstetricians and pediatricians regarding how to communicate hepatitis B virus serology results on the mother, Forty-nine percent o f obstetricians report that they always request the nurse to inform th e pediatrician (48.6%), 51.2% always verbally inform the pediatrician, 39.1% always place an order in the mother's chart and 5.7% always sen d a letter to the pediatrician, In contrast only 12.9% of pediatrician s responded that they always received maternal hepatitis B virus serol ogy results from the obstetrical or nursery nurse, only 2.6% always re ceived a verbal communication from the obstetrician, 14.1% always retr ieved it from a written report in the mother's chart and 4.2% reported that they always received a letter from the obstetrician, A uniform s ystem should be adopted to ensure efficient transmission of maternal h epatitis B serology results from obstetricians to pediatricians to ens ure prompt treatment to prevent vertical transmission of hepatitis B.