Do you see pediatric patients, or do children often accompany adults to visits at your practice or medical office? Then you very likely will encounter a serious pediatric illness or injury requiring a medical emergency response.
Managing a pediatric medical emergency is not the same as treating an adult—types of emergencies and responses can vary in specific ways with younger patients. Physician practices must know the differences and be prepared.
Differences Between Pediatric & Adult Emergencies
While children experience many of the same common medical emergencies as adults, there are critical differences including higher rates of shock and dehydration, respiratory distress, seizures, infection, and serious trauma among younger patients. One reason: some parents choose to bring a child with a developing health issue to their family doctor rather than the emergency room.
Basic Requirements: A Plan and Child-Specific Supplies
Medical response to children largely follows the protocols—and uses much the same equipment—as for adults. Here are the basic requirements recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Primarily because they are smaller than adults, children can need medical responses using specialized supplies and administration.
- For airway and resuscitation
- Pediatric-sized IV gauges
- Separate infant and pediatric bag-valve-masks and face masks. While a manually triggered oxygen resuscitator is a positive pressure option for administration to adults, it can deliver an overwhelming tidal volume to pediatric patients and smaller adults. Use a portable cylinder with a child-sized oxygen bag-valve-mask instead.
- For allergic reactions: Pediatric-dose (0.3 mg) epinephrine auto-injector.
- For medication dosing, use the Broselow tape as a reference. This worldwide-accepted medical aide was developed by noted pediatric emergency care physician Dr. James Broselow, a member of the Banyan Medical Advisory Board.
Developing a Preparedness Plan
In addition to appropriate supplies, make sure you have an appropriate plan of action. The first step is to perform a self-assessment of readiness to respond to the most common medical emergencies. The resulting plans should include procurement and organization of equipment and medications to maintain a child until the arrival of emergency services. The plan also should include a maintenance and replenishment process for the supplies.
HealthFirst Emergency Readiness Solutions Can Help
HealthFirst offers a selection of emergency medical kits with optional pediatric epinephrine auto-injectors for medical offices. Each kit comes with access to OnTraq, our advanced automation tool that tracks medications and devices, ensuring timely replacement of expiring items before they become outdated.
