When your child is sick or injured and needs immediate care, they need specialized care designed to keep them healthy and safe. A pediatric emergency department offers care to children and teens.
What can you do when your child has an accident, and your pediatrician’s office is closed, or you’re traveling.
When the child needs emergency care, you might be tempted to go to the closest hospital or immediate care center so they can find relief as fast as possible.
However, hospitals that serve adults may not be able to offer your child with specialist care they need. So why should one go to a pediatric emergency room for your child’s care? Here are some benefits of taking your child to urgent pediatric care instead of general urgent care.
The Pediatric Specialists
Pediatric specialists work with children only. Most providers found in general urgent care are not pediatric specialists. The goal of an available urgent care center is to offer care to people of all ages.
The doctors and other providers are trained in emergency or family medicine. These specialists take only a few months of pediatric training rather than three years for a pediatrician. The care approach to injury or illness is not the same as that of children.
General urgent cares accommodate wellness types of exams also. The exams include chronic disease management, immunizations, and school and sports physicals.
Pediatric urgent care doesn’t provide these kinds of exams. They do this intentionally because things to do with chronic illness or wellness issue is supposed to be handled at home or by the child’s primary pediatrician.
Expertise in Pediatric Injuries
Your child is not a small adult. For this reason, the treatment and care given to an adult don’t always work for a five-year-old.
Pediatric urgent care doctors and nurse practitioners in Empress Emergency Room Temple understands the mechanism of pediatric injury. They also understand how these pediatric injuries differ from adult injuries. For example, your child has growing bones with unique areas likely to be injured based on their stage of development.
Medication Dosing for Kids
Another benefit of urgent pediatric care is the choice of medication, pediatric dosing of medication, and appropriate use of antibiotics. In addition, pediatric specialists understand well the unique effects of certain medications. This includes adverse effects most likely to happen in your child, especially young and developing brains.
Another way of prescribing medication is to ensure its effective and can be tolerated by the child. It is also important for pediatric specialists to counsel parents about the use of over-the-counter cough and cold preparations. At our pediatric emergency room, we discuss what therapies you should be using and for how long. Also, we tell you the side effects you should be aware of when giving your child the medication.
Kids-Size Care
The exam rooms are outfitted with smaller equipment designed for kids in urgent pediatric care. They include blood pressure cuffs, temperature probes, and scales. Everything is scaled to allow our care providers to examine a teeny-tiny baby to an older adolescent.
If your child needs a splint, boot, or sling, all the sizes are available and can be adjusted to your baby’s size. In addition, the doctor follows the image guidelines, meaning your child receives up to 80% less radiation during an x-ray.
Pediatric urgent care staff is trained in techniques to do with child life that help the child reduce stress and worry that comes with being injured or sick. This allows the team to perform things like collecting blood in a child-friendly way.
Also, it’s essential to keep the families together and not separate kids from their parents when they are injured or ill. During this time, kids and parents are often scared. So, we also incorporate your child to the degree they can interact in the visit.
Kids-Friendly Atmosphere
Pediatric urgent cares are kid-friendly. There is colorful artwork on the walls and toys at the toddler emergency care room that distract the kids. Everything in the patient rooms and waiting rooms is kid-appropriate.
We also keep plenty of kid-friendly prizes, snacks, and stickers to help the visit easier for children.
If your child is injured or ill, ensure you take them to the kids er near you for better treatment and care.
