Pediatric ER or Regular ER??

[atlbkk03]

In case of emergency, do we take our newborn to a hospital with pediatric ER or any hospital ER would be OK?

[egoldber]

I would go to the closest ER.

[lowrioh]

I would ask around and see which one had a longer average wait time. My friends had their DS split open his lip and they waited 12 HOURS to see a doctor at Children's Hospital in DC. The next time he needed to go to the ER for stitches (not the most coordinated of children) they took him to the regular ER and they were seen within the hour. I would assume that at Childrens they take the most serious cases first, which is to be expected.
We live right near the city and our closest hospital (less than a mile from the house) happens to be where most of the gun shot victims from the surrounding area get flown into. It is common knowledge in our town that unless you are about to die, you travel the extra 5 miles to the other ER.

[clc053103]

we prefer the one with a Pediatric express area. Definitely gets you in quicker.

Children's hospital, however, is a 45 min drive and always a longer wait than the local e/r w/ ped express.

[o_mom]

If it's an emergency, call 9-1-1 and the ambulance will take you to the appropriate place.

If it is emergent, call your ped and speak with the on-call doctor. They will tell you which ER is preferred.

Our ped uses two local hospitals, one pediatric and one not. Having been to both, I preferred the pediatric one, but only for convenience reasons. The medical care at both was steller and if my doctor expressed a preference for the non-pediatric one for a specific incident I would trust her advice absolutely.

[ThreeofUs]

We take two things into consideration:
1. Best choice for kids
2. Wait time

This means we would go to the further emergency room, which is the best pediatric ER around (unless we were talking a real time-dependent problem, like bleeding or other "get care fast" trauma, in which case we'd call 911 anyway).

[vludmilla]

I just recently needed to bring my DD to the ER and I chose the pediatric ER and I couldn'e be happier about it. I loved our experience there. Almost no wait time, wonderful staff, very child friendly. It was probably my best hospital experience second to the hospital in which I gave birth where they treated me like I was a customer in a fine hotel (fancy dinners, warm blankets, nurses with spare time to chat, haagen daz on tap instead of green jello)....Oooh, almost makes me want to get pregnant again just for the three day retreat....Sorry for the digression!

[blisstwins]

In an emergency I would go to whichever was closest, but if they are not too far apart I would go to the pediatric ER hands down. We have one near us and it is a delight to have no adult patients nearby, viedos, toys, appropriate snacks, etc. It is so much less frightening when there are aquariums and other distractions for the kids.

[kijip]

If the pediatric one is close, I'd go there especially in urgent but not critically urgent situations. The Children's Hospital here is better prepared for parents and babies- diapers on hand, private waiting rooms, things for older children to do, snacks for toddlers etc. the closest hospital is just a few minutes from my house, but the Children's Hospital here is excellent and only a 15 minute drive. Also our pediatrician is more familiar with the Children's Hospital. So I would factor in where your pediatrician reccomends. The only time was had to go to the ER, the nurse from our peds office called us in to Children's and they were waiting for us.

[Melbel]

Barring an true medical emergency that would require a trip to the nearest ER, here, it is a hands down choice to go to the pediatric ER. I have heard far too many stories of trips to other ERs that not only took forever, but also did not offer the best care for children because they are not trained or equipped to do so. I have also heard of stories in which the children were ultimately transferred to the pediatric hospital when admission was necessary.

[KBecks]

We've never had to go. I would be inclined to go to the Children's Hospital ER if we had to.

[shilo]

Barring an true medical emergency that would require a trip to the nearest ER, here, it is a hands down choice to go to the pediatric ER. I have heard far too many stories of trips to other ERs that not only took forever, but also did not offer the best care for children because they are not trained or equipped to do so.

that pretty much sums up our one experience at a standard ER. unacceptably long wait time despite my pedi calling three times personally to let them know that he was emergent (we presented to the ER with a known 105 degree fever and orders to r/o testicular torsion (which is considered a medical emergency) and were not called back to triage for 2 hours and 15 minutes - by which time his fever was up to 105.9). extra needle sticks b/c the staff was not as familiar with accessing tiny pedi veins, regular ER doc requesting a few unneeded tests and not ordering others that were considered standard of care with his presentation (according to the pedi hospitalist who was finally paged _8_ hours after we arrived).

we have 2 hospitals in opposite directions: one about 5 minutes closer with a standard ER but a pedi floor/PICU and 24/7 pedi hospitalist, the other a children's hospital with a true pedi ER 5 minutes further away. after my experience at the standard ER, unless we are a true lights and sirens emergency i would always take the extra 5 minutes to drive north to the children's hospital with ER vs. the south to the standard ER that's 5 minutes closer.

i'd talk with your pedi and find out what they recommend based on the hospitals in your area and couple that with a consideration of the distance and emergent vs. urgent nature of whatever you're dealing with.

hth, lori

[kransden]

It depends on the emergency. If it is a "going to die" issue, of course go the closest hospital. If it is a "we can wait until we drive to the closest kids ER" issue go there. Why, well a children's hospital has all the ER equipment sized for children and EASILY available. They also know how to make the kids less traumatize. Usually they are faster too.

[momma_boo]

I'd go to the pediatric ER. We've only been there once (knock on wood) and it was a holiday am, so very quiet, but we were very pleased w/ the service and attention at the pediatric ER.

I know in another post, someone wrote, "If it's an emergency, call 9-1-1 and the ambulance will take you to the appropriate place."

As a former EMT, we always took patient preference into consideration whenever possible, esp if their personal doc didn't have priveleges at one hospital over another since we have 2 hospitals that are the same distance. So it's always good to discuss it w/ your ped at a regular visit to get their advice.

The big hospital for our area - with trauma center, pediatric ER is maybe another 5 minutes, but that was the automatic choice for really big, major stuff that we encountered as EMT's.

After our experience at the hospital, we know that we'll always try to take the kids to the pediatric ER (even if it's just for the individual LCD tv's that are attached to the bed. If Dora hadn't come on, we would never have been able to have dd stay still for the EKG).

[bubbaray]

Depends on the nature of the "emergency". For non-lifethreatening situations, we go to Children's Hospital. Depending on traffic, it is between 30-60 minutes away.

Our closest regular hospital (where I delivered both girls) is 10 minutes drive from our house. It does have a pediatric ER and children are seen by pediatricians. We still avoid it if at all possible as its a large trauma center and super crazy busy.

Having said that, when we had a lights & sirens life-threatening emergency (anaphylaxis) with DD#2 back in January when she was 11m, we did NOT ask the ambulance to redirect to Childrens. We certainly could have -- the ambulance that took us was an infant transport team and they will redirect in certain circumstances. We went to the closer hospital and were seen right away. As in, she was rolled in on a stretcher, 1 EMS stayed with me/her, the other one walked in to the dr/nurse area then escorted us to a dr & nurse, who were waiting with syringes of epinepherine and prednisone.

In a true medical emergency that requires a call to 911 and ambulance trip to the hospital, personally, I would go wherever the ambulance wants to take you.