Emergency Medicine

Studies highlight a need for pediatrician offices to be ready to handle emergencies, available data also demonstrate that many practices, including those that have already needed to treat a critically ill child, are not adequately prepared because they lack the relevant protocols, training, and tools.

For Contemporary Pediatrics, Dr Bobby Lazzara discusses a study published in the journal Pediatric Emergency Care that examined whether practices were prepared for emergencies requiring airway management.

Avoiding misconceptions and practice gaps are keys to recognizing the most common abdominal emergencies in community pediatrics, said Joan E Shook, MD, MBA, FAAP.

Rashes and fevers are among the most common complaints seen in the pediatrician’s office. The differential diagnosis is often large and ranges from entities the pediatrician sees commonly such as erythema infectiosum to the less common diseases such as Kawasaki syndrome, to more potentially serious conditions such as vaccine preventable illnesses and everything in between.

In the mid-1990s, David Monroe, MD, a pediatrician in Columbia, Maryland, remembers having to admit children with common diagnoses such as appendicitis, asthma, and pneumonia to hospitals 30 or more miles away. That was because Howard County General Hospital, the community hospital in Columbia, was struggling to maintain pediatric inpatient care.

Dispensing asthma meds in the emergency department (ED) reduces future visits and costs.

Children with autism who require emergency medical care have special needs clinicians must address before beginning treatment. Resources and strategies are available to help you coordinate such care in your setting.

Pediatric emergency department physicians usually can accurately predict the likelihood of an intussusception diagnosis on the basis of history and physical examination, a new study shows.

To find out what factors raise the risk of prescription going unfilled after an emergency department visit, researchers conducted a study in children discharged with a prescription from the pediatric ED of an urban safety-net hospital serving a low-income population.

With the ability to more accurately diagnose acute injuries in the emergency department, it is no wonder that the use of computed tomography scanning has increased over the past decades.

Bedside emergency ultrasonography has become a valuable tool for emergency physicians.

An estimated 55 million students nationwide head back into the classroom this month. ACEP wants every student to get to school safely.

Imagine that you are working in an outpatient pediatric practice one morning when a mother arrives with her 3-month-old infant who is in respiratory florid distress.

When the medical diagnosis of "concussion" is given to explain injuries in children, it may be misleading to parents and physicians, causing them not to realize the potential severity of brain injuries in children, according to a study published in Pediatrics.

Children who are in the hospital or in school during a public health emergency now have two new measures in place to protect them, thanks to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

Lower-income children make nearly twice as many emergency department visits as higher-income children, according to a report by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

An excerpt from AAP's recommendations on preparing the pediatric office for different types of emergencies.

Office preparedness for pediatric emergencies is assumed in the training, certification, and continual vigilance that defines a proficient practice. Yes, you're confident in your traditional medical skills-but what about when a psychosocial crisis arises?

A state-by-state survey conducted by the American College ofEmergency Physicians (ACEP) has found widespread gaps in emergencycare in the United States. Access to emergency care is seriouslylimited in many states, with no excess capacity to cope withdisasters and with frequent shunting of patients from one hospitalto another when emergency department beds are full, as they oftenare.

Emergencies in pediatric offices are not uncommon, but practices are seldom prepared to respond. Implementing an emergency office protocol and a mock code program?like those detailed here?might save a life.

Providing emergency care to children is a special challenge with risks for both patient and pediatrician. Attention to some basic precautions promotes good medical care for the child and heads off legal problems for the physician at the same time.

Providing emergency care to children is a special challenge with risks for both patient and pediatrician. Attention to some basic precautions promotes good medical care for the child and heads off legal problems for the physician at the same time.