Pediatric Emergency Medicine Division
Along with the move to the new hospital in November 2009, there were significant organizational changes in the Department of Emergency Medicine. The most significant of these was the formal merging of the Pediatric ED into the DEM. Along with assuming all clinical care in the Peds ED, the DEM has also added five new Pediatric Emergency Medicine faculty members: Dr. Liza Kearl, Dr. Ilene Claudius, Dr. Solomon Behar, Dr. Madhu Hardasmalani and Dr. Genevieve Santillanes. They bring with them experience and enthusiasm.
With the addition of these five faculty members to our Department, we are excited with many of the projects we will be undertaking. An “Ouchless ED” aims to look at every aspect of a child’s care in the ED and find ways to make the experience less painful and less frightening. Education of our families regarding injury prevention, health tips and cardiopulmonary resuscitation is another goal that will be accomplished via videos and consumer safety products for sale.
Education of the DEM staff, ranging from medical students to residents, will also be taking great strides. A new pediatric emergency medicine education website is being developed that will incorporate pediatric lectures from our Grand Rounds, the yearly USC Essentials course in Las Vegas, and the commercially-available EMRAP series. We are grateful to Mel Herbert in our Department for making this website available.
Other goals for the Division include the increased use of ultrasound by both physicians and nursing staff in the Pediatric ED, and alternative imaging such as MRI scanning instead of CT scanning in children for a variety of disease processes. Very few research studies from the Department of Emergency Medicine have involved pediatric patients but that is about to change. We are excited about adding LAC+USC to the list of academic emergency departments adding quality research to the field of pediatric emergency medicine.
This year, we learned the wonderful news that Sony Corporation has decided to “adopt” the Pediatric ED and will transform the area with child friendly artwork and furniture. We also will be completing the Playground area just outside of the Emergency Department so that our smallest patients and visitors will have a place to play while waiting for care in the ED.
Our final goal is to add a Pediatric Emergency Medicine fellowship here at LAC+USC. Pediatric Emergency Medicine fellowships are very popular among both graduating Emergency Medicine and Pediatric residents. Graduates of these fellowships are greatly desired across the country in both academic and private emergency departments. We have a lot to tackle in regards to meeting the challenges of a fellowship but we are also very excited about those same challenges. With 5 new enthusiastic faculty members, we have every confidence that we will meet these goals.
Dr. Maureen McCollough
Dept. of Emergency Medicine
Pediatric Division