Our mission in the emergency department at Children’s of Alabama is to provide compassionate, state-of-the-art, efficient, and cost-effective care to all children presenting with illness or injury. It takes the convergence of patient care, research, education, and funding to ensure the finest care. The affiliation between UAB and COA enables a “best of both worlds” environment, capitalizing on the strengths of both institutions. The Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine strives to make substantial contributions in each academic domain: clinical, research, and education. In addition, our group is committed to providing administrative leadership, community outreach, and child advocacy.
As Alabama’s main tertiary care center for the care of children and as the state’s only designated Level 1 pediatric trauma center, we have the privilege and responsibility of caring for the most critically ill children in Alabama. To best care for these children, we have surrounded our pediatric emergency medicine physicians with an excellent team of nurse practitioners, registered nurses, and ancillary staff members. Our physicians also have 24 hour access to pediatric medical and surgical subspecialists as well as 24/7 in-house PICU and CVICU coverage.
The Benjamin Russell Children’s Hospital opened in August of 2012, expanding the COA campus with a stunning 12 story facility dedicated to inpatient, emergency, and surgical services. Our new ED has 53 rooms including 4 major resuscitation rooms and a 4 bed unit specialized for the care of psychiatric patients. The radiology department, including MRI and CT, is connected to the ED offering rapid access to multiple imaging modalities.
Our History
The emergency department at Children's of Alabama has undergone a rapid evolution in the past twenty years. In 1983, the "ED" as such was staffed primarily by nurses. Pediatric residents were assigned to the ED for portions of the day only; during some hours the in-house ward team (which also covered the PICU) would be called down to the ED to evaluate the sickest patients. A surgery moonlighter was present during the evening hours. Total unscheduled walk-ins visits to the ED and acute medical clinic numbered approximately 40,000 per year. There were only three attending ambulatory pediatrics faculty, available in-house 8:00am until 8:00pm, who shared responsibility for the outpatient clinics. They would come to the ED for consultations as needed.
Things have changed…
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We saw 72,117 patients in our ED in 2016
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13% (9,467) of ED visits were admitted
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Of those patients admitted, 23% (2203) were admitted to an ICU or step-down unit.
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In 2016, we saw 456 trauma alerted patients. Of those, 30% (135) were altered as Level 1 Traumas.
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We receive transfers from all over the state of Alabama and surrounding states, some of which are from 250 miles away.
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We have a staff of 21 pediatric emergency medicine faculty
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We currently have 9 pediatric emergency medicine fellows
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We have 15 full-time, pediatric-certified nurse practitioners who provide 20 hours of coverage per day
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At least 1 attending/fellow is present in the ED 24 hours a day and often there is double to quadruple attending/fellow coverage for 16 hours a day.
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We are a division of the Department of Pediatrics which includes over 210 full time faculty in general academic pediatrics and 18 subspecialty divisions.
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In FY 2016, the Department of Pediatrics faculty had more than 230 publications, research funding from the NIH totaling $17.5 million (placing us 12th among all departments of pediatrics in the United States) and total research funding totaling $29.8 million.
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Eight of Children’s of Alabama's pediatric specialty services were placed among the top programs in the United States by U.S. News and World Report in their 2016-2017 ranking of The Best Children's Hospitals
Regional Poison Control Center
Faculty
Division Director
Administrative Supervisor
Rhonda Wilkins
rkmorrow@uabmc.edu
205.638.6040