Not just little adults: preparing a children's emergency department for COVID-19

Jonathan Adamson; Chris Bird; Kate Edgworth; Stuart Hartshorn; Kasyap Jamalapuram; Anand Kanani; Kate Mackay; Tina Newton; Ben Stanhope; Bridget Wilson

doi:10.1136/emermed-2020-209904

Not just little adults: preparing a children's emergency department for COVID-19

Emerg Med J. 2020 Aug;37(8):460-462. doi: 10.1136/emermed-2020-209904. Epub 2020 Jul 1.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Emergency Department, Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
² Emergency Department, Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, Birmingham, UK christopher.bird2@nhs.net.
³ Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.

Abstract

COVID-19 presented unique challenges in preparing our stand-alone children's emergency department for the pandemic and has demonstrated well the paediatric adage, 'children aren't little adults'.

Keywords: infectious diseases, viral; paediatrics, paediatric emergency medicine.

MeSH terms

Betacoronavirus / isolation & purification
COVID-19
Change Management*
Child
Comorbidity
Coronavirus Infections* / diagnosis
Coronavirus Infections* / epidemiology
Coronavirus Infections* / prevention & control
Critical Pathways
Emergency Service, Hospital / organization & administration*
Humans
Infection Control* / methods
Infection Control* / organization & administration
Infection Control* / trends
Organizational Innovation*
Pandemics* / prevention & control
Pediatrics* / methods
Pediatrics* / organization & administration
Pneumonia, Viral* / diagnosis
Pneumonia, Viral* / epidemiology
Pneumonia, Viral* / prevention & control
Policy Making
Risk Factors
SARS-CoV-2
Triage* / methods
Triage* / organization & administration
Triage* / trends
United Kingdom