Be Prepared for Life's Emergencies

If your son breaks his arm or your daughter suffers an allergic reaction, the emergency room (ER) at Children's Hospital Colorado has experts on hand who are equipped to meet your child's unique needs.

When children have medical emergencies, receiving care from pediatric emergency specialists can be critical to a positive outcome. In fact, a recent study by the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and Children's Research Institute found that children who are treated in pediatric hospitals have better outcomes, shorter lengths of stay and lower hospital bills than those treated at adult hospitals or in children's units of adult hospitals.

At Children's Hospital Colorado, your child will be treated in an environment where physicians understand everything that affects children and adolescents. Our pediatric emergency specialists have more pediatric emergency education and training than physicians in adult ERs and can provide more timely diagnosis and treatment to help your child recover more quickly.

We understand children

Children are not only medically different from adults; symptoms vary from child to child.

"Symptoms are influenced by the age and size of the child," said Ed Orsini, MD, Medical Director of the Clinical Laboratories and Transfusion Medicine at Children's and Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. "When physicians prescribe therapy or treatment for a child, they consider the child's growth and development, including the weight and height of the child, rather than the child's symptoms alone."

To ensure proper diagnosis and treatment for every child, pediatric emergency specialists can be accessed around the clock to provide radiology, lab, anesthesiology and surgery services when needed.

We recognize differences

When prescribing medications, physicians must be able to differentiate between a child who is experiencing fear versus one who is experiencing pain. By recognizing these differences, our specialists can avoid prescribing medications to a child who might not actually need them. Children's specialists who examine children day-in and day-out are better equipped to recognize these needs and act accordingly.

"Children's bodies and coping strategies continuously change throughout childhood," said Erika Sidney, MD, Assistant Medical Director of the ER at Children's. "As specialists, we are trained to identify the different developmental stages, allowing us to more accurately diagnose and treat each child."

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