An international survey of long-term video/EEG services

To determine current practices in the provision of video-EEG services, the authors conducted an international survey by post. The aim of the survey wa s to evaluate, by reference to other centres, how and why:certain things ar e done, be assured that their own center is providing a quality service, id entify weaknesses in their service, and from this, set improvement goals an d objectives; A purposive sampling method was used by sending questionnaire s to 78 hospitals where it was believed a long-term video-EEG monitoring se rvice existed,,Completed survey questionnaires were returned from 42 center s. Although the survey mechanism may have resulted in self-selection bias, evaluation of the responses provides information on patient management, sta ffing levels, equipment, and equipment management. Ultimately, these data m ay aid in identifying a minimum set of requirements: for the provision of a video-EEG telemetry service.