The Availability and Delivery of Health Care to High School Athletes in Alabama

In brief: A sports medicine survey of 119 public high schools in Alabama showed that the smaller schools are farther from medical facilities and have less space and equipment for injury management than larger schools. Primary care or family physicians are used most often as team physicians, but the availability of physicians at practice and at sports events other than football is limited. Many schools have no team physician, most lack athletic trainers, and about half of the coaches do not feel prepared to handle a medical emergency. Many of the schools rated the delivery and quality of medical care to their athletes as fair to very poor.