Emergency departments not equipped for kids

Virtually none of America's emergency departments are equipped to care for children properly, despite the fact that kids account for 20 percent of all ED visits, according to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics.  This could be a particularly bad problem, since the next wave of H1N1 virus is expected to hit children hard, researchers are warning.

Right now, 94 percent of U.S. hospital EDs don't have appropriate equipment--such as right-sized tubes for intubation of children--and access to pediatric specialists is unusual.  This falls well below the standards set by the American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Emergency Physicians and Emergency Nurses Association, the study's authors note.

Among other things, the groups recommend that EDs have a physician coordinator for pediatric emergency medicine in place, that physicians working in the ED have the training to provide emergency evaluation and treatment of children coming into the ED, and that EDs have a transport plan in place to move children to appropriate facilities when their needs can't be met in an acute-care facility.

To learn more about planning for pediatrics in the ED:
- read the guidelines (.pdf)

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