Innovative Programs & Services

Our pediatric emergency medicine team has implemented a number of innovative programs to improve the care we provide to acutely ill children. These include

• timely delivery of pain medications to children with sickle cell crisis and long bone fractures
• delivery of antibiotics to immune-compromised children with central lines and fever
• stewardship of antibiotic prescribing patterns for children with pneumonia
• use of radiography in the diagnosis and management of infants with bronchiolitis 

Our pediatric emergency medicine specialists are integrating clinical decision rules and support into our electronic medical record (EMR) and developing disease-specific order sets in the EMR, both initiatives in an effort to improve quality and patient safety. 

Pain and Sedation Program (Comfort Care Program)

• Eliminating pain and distress in children is a priority for our team. We have a multidisciplinary team of child life specialists, nurses, and doctors, called the "Children's Comfort Program," dedicated to achieving this goal in the emergency department.
• We focus on providing pain relief in a prompt and painless manner by promoting the use of intranasal analgesics (pain medications that are sprayed in the nose and do not require an intravenous line or needle), and have quality improvement initiatives in place for many conditions, such as pain in children with sickle cell disease or those with long bone fractures.
• We have a well-developed program to reduce the pain and anxiety of painful procedures using both non-pharmacological and pharmacological strategies. These include child life specialists who work one-on-one with our patients using specialized techniques and strategies; topical anesthetics to numb the skin before laceration repairs or needle sticks; and medications like nitrous oxide ("laughing gas") to help safely reduce pain and anxiety during invasive procedures.

PEM Ultrasound Program

• Our pediatric emergency medicine ultrasound programs is one of the largest in the country with the greatest number of pediatric ultrasound trained emergency medicine physicians. We also have one of the first pediatric emergency medicine ultrasound fellowship programs nationally and train 1-2 fellows annually.The use of ultrasound as a diagnostic tool in pediatric emergency medicine is cutting edge and radiation-free, and our program is working to exponentially advance the knowledge of its use and its practical application to provide safer and more effective care for our pediatric patients.

PEM Simulation Program

• The use of simulation technology is growing nationally as a means to teach and maintain skills necessary for successful management of acutely ill patients.Our division conducts weekly inter-professional mock resuscitations in our actual care environment.Our highly dedicated simulation team of physicians and nurses has been a leading innovator in clinical debriefing, mock codes for night staff, workplace competency assessments and evaluating new clinical spaces. We hold leadership positions in INSPIRE (International Network for Simulation-based Innovation, Research and Education), a multi-collaborative network aimed at improving care to children through simulation-based research and education.

PEP Network (Pediatrics for Emergency Physicians)

• Recognizing that treating pediatric emergencies is critically different from treating adult emergencies, our division has founded the PEP Network, a collaborative of General Emergency Medicine training programs across the country interested in broadening their knowledge of specifically pediatric emergency medicine.The Network now includes 10 academic centers.

Asthma Care Coordination Program

• Our PED is the only emergency medicine facility in the region with a designated asthma care coordinator who links high risk pediatric asthma patients with community health workers; these workers provide PED patients with targeted resources for asthma management including home visits for pediatric patients with asthma.