This report provides a summary of best practices for improving flow, reducing waiting times, and improving the quality of care of pediatric patients in the emergency department.
CURRENT STATUS AND NEEDS
ED Use and ED Crowding in the United StatesApproximately 800 000 children seek care in the emergency department (ED) each day in the United States. Additionally, it is estimated that 3.4% of US children use EDs as their source for sick care. The vast majority (92%) of these children are seen in community EDs, with a smaller percentage seen in pediatric EDs. The increase in ED utilization has saturated the capacity of EDs and emergency medical services in many communities. Increases in patient volume and decreases in resources, including fragmentation of resources and shortage of critical subspecialists, have resulted in EDs facing crowding and ambulance diversion.The need for emergency medical services outstrips the available resources on a daily basis. This mismatch is reflected by the considerable increase in the number of patients visiting EDs. In 1993, 90.3 million patients visited EDs; in 2003 that number increased to 113.9 million patients. Approximately 21% of these patients were younger than 15 years. Despite the increase in ED visits, the number of hospitals decreased by 703, the number of hospital beds decreased by 198 000, and the number of EDs decreased by 425.