Patients in emergency rooms often come in with conditions requiring urgent diagnoses and treatment. When these patients are children, it adds another layer of complexity as pediatric symptoms often present differently than those of adults and require different treatment plans. With the wide variety of conditions possible in emergency and critical care, it is impossible for smaller hospitals to support full time staff specializing in all the conditions they might encounter over the year. This often results in the automatic transfer of pediatric emergency and critical care patients to other hospitals, resulting in sometimes unnecessary costs and travel burdens on the hospital system and the patient’s family.
With Pediatric Emergency and Critical Care teleconsultations, community hospitals can utilize the diverse group of pediatric specialists at MUSC Health and feel confident in keeping their patients within their own community hospital. This program helps children get the diagnosis and treatment they need faster and can help to more accurately determine when a transfer is necessary. Having a child in need of urgent care is stressful enough for families without adding unnecessary travel burdens. Parents and community physicians can rest assured that these children are receiving the most comprehensive care possible through this partnership.