Almost half of emergency departments (EDs) now are staffed with pediatric emergency coordinators to ensure they are equipped to treat children, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics. That represents a major improvement from previous studies that found poor compliance with guidelines the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Emergency Physicians first issued in 2001 regarding emergency pediatric care. A version of those guidelines updated in 2009 states that hospitals should have a nurse and physician pediatric-readiness team to coordinate proper training and equipment, such as child-sized laryngoscope blades to examine the larynx, tracheostomy tubes and pediatric Magill forceps used to clear airways. "Our findings are very exciting," Marianne Gausche-Hill, the study's author, told the Daily Breeze. "The number of equipment available has improved significantly. The barriers we identified are the cost of training and the availability of certain resources." Study Abstract