Most Hospital ERs Aren't Prepared to Treat Kids

If a trip to the ER with a child isn't scary enough, Wall Street Journal now reports that many hospitals are not equipped to treat them properly. In an exclusive investigation, the paper found that only 14% of hospital emergency departments are certified to treat kids or are actually children's hospitals. Some of the problems young patients run into at hospitals include not having equipment sized for children and doctors with less experience diagnosing symptoms in younger age groups and determining the appropriate doses of drugs for kids. Per the Journal, improving hospital readiness to treat children is a known problem among doctors and health officials, but change is slow, and in the meantime, things can turn deadly.

A study in JAMA Network Open found that around 1,440 children died over a five-year period, between 2012 and 2017, due to lack of pediatric preparedness in ERs. The Journal also cites a 2019 study that found children are four times more likely to die if they are treated in an ER that isn't prepared for children as compared to ones rated as having the highest level of pediatric readiness. "Our emergency care systems were never designed with children in mind," said Dr. Katherine Remick, co-director of a federally funded emergency services group. Manageable steps that hospitals can make include assigning a staff member to manage improvements, training doctors and nurses, and stocking the correct equipment and supplies needed for kids.

"Pediatric care requires specialized equipment, training, and protocols to provide the best care to children," Dr. Jeremy Kahn, an author of the 2019 study, told US News at the time. "Obtaining that kind of preparedness is costly and time-consuming." But some doctors are pushing back against the Journal's report. "Implying that hundreds of thousands of health care professionals working in our EDs—many of them parents themselves—don't care about treating kids is just wrong," Dr. Chris DeRienzo, chief physician executive for the American Hospital Association, responded in a blog post. "Even worse, arguing they don't prioritize that care because treating children makes less money is insulting." The Journal did note that adults are higher revenue-generating patients, and that hospitals can lose money treating kids. (More hospital stories.)