The Management of Children and Youth With Pediatric Mental and Behavioral Health Emergencies.

Mental and behavioral health (MBH) emergencies in children and youth continue to increasingly affect not only the emergency department (ED), but the entire spectrum of emergency medical services for children, from prehospital services to the community. Inadequate community and institutional infrastructure to care for children and youth with MBH conditions makes the ED an essential part of the health care safety net for these patients. As a result, an increasing number of children and youth are referred to the ED for evaluation of a broad spectrum of MBH emergencies, from depression and suicidality to disruptive and aggressive behavior. However, challenges in providing optimal care to these patients include lack of personnel, capacity, and infrastructure, challenges with timely access to a mental health professional, the nature of a busy ED environment, and paucity of outpatient post-ED discharge resources. These factors contribute to prolonged ED stays and boarding, which negatively affects patient care and ED operations. Strategies to improve care for MBH emergencies, including systems level coordination of care, is therefore essential. The goal of this policy statement and its companion technical report is to highlight strategies, resources, and recommendations for improving emergency care delivery for pediatric MBH.

A Program of Assessment Model for Point-of-Care Ultrasound Training for Pediatric Critical Care Providers: A Comprehensive Approach to Enhance Competency-Based Point-of-Care Ultrasound Training.

Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is increasingly accepted in pediatric critical care medicine as a tool for guiding the evaluation and treatment of patients. POCUS is a complex skill that requires user competency to ensure accuracy, reliability, and patient safety. A robust competency-based medical education (CBME) program ensures user competency and mitigates patient safety concerns. A programmatic assessment model provides a longitudinal, holistic, and multimodal approach to teaching, assessing, and evaluating learners. The authors propose a fit-for-purpose and modifiable CBME model that is adaptable for different institutions' resources and needs for any intended competency level. This educational model drives and supports learning, ensures competency attainment, and creates a clear pathway for POCUS education while enhancing patient care and safety.

Cardiac Point-of-Care Ultrasound and Multi-Disciplinary Improvement Opportunities in Acute Systolic Heart Failure Management in a Pediatric Emergency Center.

Cardiac point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) has the ability to rapidly assess function and identify systolic heart failure (HF), an often-missed diagnosis. POCUS has the potential to expedite medical intervention, improving overall outcomes. There have been limited studies describing pediatric emergency center (EC) utilization of cardiac POCUS and its impact on outcomes in pediatric patients. Authors performed a retrospective chart review at a tertiary children's hospital to identify all patients admitted from the EC to the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) with acute systolic HF between January 2017 and August 2019. Outcome measures included EC length of stay (LOS), CICU LOS, and time until first IV HF medicine was administered. A total of 21 patients and 24 encounters meeting criteria were identified. Cardiac POCUS agreed with standard echocardiography in 8 of 9 cases. Patients who had a cardiac POCUS in the EC seemed more likely to receive their first dose of intravenous heart failure medication while in the Emergency Center (70% vs 43%). There was a trend toward significance, but it did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.1). EC and CICU LOS were not significantly different between POCUS and non-POCUS groups. Cardiac POCUS has the potential to have a valuable role in the early diagnosis of acute systolic HF in children. However, early diagnosis by POCUS did not translate into shorter EC or CICU LOS. This pilot data serves as a baseline for efforts to promote earlier clinical recognition of acute HF and more efficient collaboration between clinical services.

Twelve tips for point-of-care ultrasound teaching in low-resource settings.

Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) has become the standard of care for many emergency department evaluations. Low-resource settings are ideal for POCUS to help improve access to imaging for a number of indications that are obstetric, disease or trauma related. The following twelve specific tips are aimed toward organizations and individuals who aspire to initiate POCUS training in a low-resource setting.

Diagnosing Acute Heart Failure in the Pediatric Emergency Department Using Point-of-Care Ultrasound.

BACKGROUND: Acute heart failure (AHF) in children is associated with significant disease burden with high rates of morbidity, mortality, and resource utilization. These children often present to the emergency department with clinical features that mimic common childhood illnesses. Cardiac point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) can be an effective tool for rapidly identifying abnormal cardiac function. CASE REPORTS: This case series documents 10 children presenting with AHF between 2016 and 2019 and demonstrates how pediatric emergency physicians used cardiac POCUS to expedite their diagnosis, management, and disposition. All cardiac POCUS was performed before comprehensive echocardiograms were completed. One case is described in detail; the other cases are summarized in a Table. WHY SHOULD AN EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN BE AWARE OF THIS?: Early recognition of AHF is critical to reduce pediatric morbidity and mortality. With proper training, cardiac POCUS can be an effective adjunct and should be considered for the early diagnosis and treatment of infants and children with AHF.

Credentialing Pediatric Emergency Medicine Faculty in Point-of-Care Ultrasound: Expert Guidelines.

ABSTRACT: As point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) becomes standard practice in pediatric emergency medicine (PEM), it is important to have benchmarks in place for credentialing PEM faculty in POCUS. Faculty must be systematically trained and assessed for competency in order to be credentialed in POCUS and granted privileges by an individual institution. Recommendations on credentialing PEM faculty are needed to ensure appropriate, consistent, and responsible use of this diagnostic and procedural tool. It is our intention that these guidelines will serve as a framework for credentialing faculty in PEM POCUS.

A Novel Tool for Teaching Cardiac Point-of-Care Ultrasound: An Exploratory Application of the Design-Based Research Approach.

OBJECTIVES: To develop a competency-based educational tool for cardiac point-of-care ultrasound image interpretation using the design-based research approach. DESIGN: In accordance with design-based research, multiple methods were used to determine that learners would benefit from achieving competency in cardiac point-of-care ultrasound image interpretation before they attempted it at the bedside. A competency-based educational tool was designed and underwent a rapid prototyping process with experts. Evaluative data was used to redesign and reevaluate the educational tool with a new group of learners to improve its effectiveness. SETTING: Large, university-based children's hospital. SUBJECTS: Pediatric critical care attending physicians, fellow physicians and advanced practice providers, and pediatric resident physicians. INTERVENTIONS: Integrating mastery learning and deliberate practice as theoretical frameworks, the authors designed an online "Image Library" composed of 90 questions of cardiac point-of-care ultrasound image clips with varying degrees of pathology that were organized into three levels of difficulty. Learners answered a set of 10 questions, learned from feedback, and repeated an additional set in the same difficulty until achieving a predefined level of mastery. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Two learning cycles were implemented with a total of 41 learners. Forty learners (98%) were able to demonstrate mastery on the Image Library and required a range of 30 to 210 questions to do so. On a 10-question final assessment, learners scored an average of 72%, while experts and novices scored 83% and 17%, respectively. On a 5-point scale, learners rated the quality of the Image Library for facilitation of learning (median 5), enjoyment of learning (5), and useful knowledge and skills to improve clinical practice (5). CONCLUSIONS: An effective and innovative tool for teaching cardiac point-of-care ultrasound image interpretation was developed using the design-based research approach. Our results demonstrate the importance of individualized learning timelines for ultrasound image interpretation.

Interpretation Accuracy and Interrater Agreement of Pediatric Skin and Soft Tissue Point-of-Care Ultrasound Images among Residents and Faculty.

BACKGROUND: Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is commonly used to facilitate care in the emergency department. Acquired images are often reviewed by local experts for educational and quality assurance purposes. However, no published study has examined the accuracy and reliability of POCUS image interpretation by multiple reviewers. OBJECTIVES: We studied the accuracy and interrater agreement among expert and trainee reviewers of prerecorded pediatric skin and soft tissue (SST) POCUS images. METHODS: POCUS faculty and emergency medicine (EM) residents blindly reviewed deidentified pediatric SST POCUS images and indicated whether a drainable fluid collection was present, absent, or indeterminate. This was then compared with the gold standard based on discharge diagnoses and telephone follow-up. Images rated as indeterminate were excluded from the initial analysis. Sensitivity analysis assuming indeterminate answers were inaccurate was subsequently conducted. RESULTS: In phase 1, 6 pediatric EM POCUS directors reviewed 168 images. The overall accuracy was 79.7% (range 66.1-86.0%). The mean Cohen's kappa was 0.58 (range 0.24-0.84). Sensitivity analysis yielded an overall accuracy of 71.3% (range 56.5-76.9%) and a Cohen's kappa of 0.43 (range 0.20-0.59). In phase 2, 6 general EM POCUS faculty and 20 EM residents reviewed 120 images. The overall accuracy among residents was 72.2% (range 51.4-84.7%) and among faculty was 83.6% (range 77.9-88.8%). Sensitivity analysis yielded an overall resident accuracy of 63.0% (range 49.5-80.7) and an overall faculty accuracy of 73.9% (range 67.0-79.8%). Fleiss' kappa was 0.322 for residents and 0.461 for faculty. CONCLUSIONS: We found moderate accuracy and fair to good interrater agreement among POCUS faculty and EM residents reviewing pediatric SST POCUS images.

Comparison of Ultrasound Guidance vs. Clinical Assessment Alone for Management of Pediatric Skin and Soft Tissue Infections.

BACKGROUND: Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) can potentially help distinguish cellulitis from abscess, which can appear very similar on physical examination but necessitate different treatment approaches. OBJECTIVE: To compare POCUS guidance vs. clinical assessment alone on the management of pediatric skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI) in the emergency department (ED) setting. METHODS: Children ages 6 months to 18 years presenting to participating EDs with SSTIs ≥ 1 cm were eligible. All treatment decisions, including use of POCUS, were at the discretion of the treating clinicians. Patients were divided into those managed with POCUS guidance (POCUS group) and those managed using clinical assessment alone (non-POCUS group). Primary outcome was clinical treatment failure at 7-10 days (unscheduled ED return visit or admission, procedural intervention, change in antibiotics therapy). Secondary outcomes were ED length of stay, discharge rate, use of alternative imaging, and need for procedural sedation. POCUS utility and impact on management decisions were also assessed by treating clinicians. RESULTS: In total, 321 subjects (327 lesions) were analyzed, of which 299 (93%) had completed follow-up. There was no significant difference between the POCUS and non-POCUS groups in any of the primary or secondary outcomes. Management plan was changed in the POCUS group in 22.9% of cases (13.8% from medical to surgical, 9.1% from surgical to medical). Clinicians reported increased benefit of POCUS in cases of higher clinical uncertainty. CONCLUSIONS: Use of POCUS was not associated with decreased ED treatment failure rate or process outcomes in pediatric SSTI patients. However, POCUS changed the management plan in approximately one in four cases.

A clinical decision rule for the use of ultrasound in children presenting with acute inflammatory neck masses.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the association between clinical and ultrasound findings and surgical drainage in children with inflammatory neck masses and to create a clinical decision rule that allows for reduction of unnecessary use of ultrasound in inflammatory neck masses. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed data on patients ≤18 years who visited our emergency department between 2012 and 2014 with inflammatory neck swelling and who underwent ultrasound examinations of the neck. We used multivariate logistic regression to identify factors associated with drainage within 24 h of ultrasound study (early drainage). Recursive partitioning was used for risk stratification. RESULTS: Of 341 consecutive patients included in this study, 37 patients underwent early drainage and all had purulent material drained. All patients but one with non-suppurative adenitis and 95% (97/102) of those with suppurative adenitis or early/suspicious abscess on ultrasound were initially treated medically. Of those with a definite diagnosis of abscess/fluid collection, 89% (32/36) underwent early drainage. Patients who underwent drainage were more likely to be younger, female and have a longer duration of neck swelling, with fluctuance and erythema on exam. Recursive partitioning analysis revealed that among children with neck swelling >3 days and ≤3 days, the rate of early drainage was 24.3% and 4.4%, respectively. None of the children >7 months with neck swelling ≤3 days underwent early drainage. CONCLUSION: Children older than 1 year with inflammatory neck swelling ≤3 days are at low risk of having ultrasound findings that require drainage. In this subgroup of patients, ultrasound could be avoided unless the patient fails to improve after a trial of antibiotic therapy.

Prospective evaluation of prehospital trauma ultrasound during aeromedical transport.

BACKGROUND: Ultrasound is widely considered the initial diagnostic imaging modality for trauma. Preliminary studies have explored the use of trauma ultrasound in the prehospital setting, but the accuracy and potential utility is not well understood. OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine the accuracy of trauma ultrasound performed by helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) providers. METHODS: Trauma ultrasound was performed in flight on adult patients during a 7-month period. Accuracy of the abdominal, cardiac, and lung components was determined by comparison to the presence of injury, primarily determined by computed tomography, and to required interventions. RESULTS: HEMS providers performed ultrasound on 293 patients during a 7-month period, completing 211 full extended Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma (EFAST) studies. HEMS providers interpreted 11% of studies as indeterminate. Sensitivity and specificity for hemoperitoneum was 46% (95% confidence interval [CI] 27.1%-94.1%) and 94.1% (95% CI 89.2%-97%), and for laparotomy 64.7% (95% CI 38.6%-84.7%) and 94% (95% CI 89.2%-96.8%), respectively. Sensitivity and specificity for pneumothorax were 18.7% (95% CI 8.9%-33.9%) and 99.5% (95% CI 98.2%-99.9%), and for thoracostomy were 50% (95% CI 22.3%-58.7%) and 99.8% (98.6%-100%), respectively. The positive likelihood ratio for laparotomy was 10.7 (95% CI 5.5-21) and for thoracostomy 235 (95% CI 31-1758), and the negative likelihood ratios were 0.4 (95% CI 0.2-0.7) and 0.5 (95% CI 0.3-0.8), respectively. Of 240 cardiac studies, there was one false-positive and three false-negative interpretations (none requiring intervention). CONCLUSIONS: HEMS providers performed EFAST with moderate accuracy. Specificity was high and positive interpretations raised the probability of injury requiring intervention. Negative interpretations were predictive, but sensitivity was not sufficient for ruling out injury.

Review of pediatric emergency care and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic posed new challenges in health care delivery for patients of all ages. These included inadequate personal protective equipment, workforce shortages, and unknowns related to a novel virus. Children have been uniquely impacted by COVID-19, both from the system of care and socially. In the initial surges of COVID-19, a decrease in pediatric emergency department (ED) volume and a concomitant increase in critically ill adult patients resulted in re-deployment of pediatric workforce to care for adult patients. Later in the pandemic, a surge in the number of critically ill children was attributed to multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. This was an unexpected complication of COVID-19 and further challenged the health care system. This article reviews the impact of COVID-19 on the entire pediatric emergency care continuum, factors affecting ED care of children with COVID-19 infection, including availability of vaccines and therapeutics approved for children, and pediatric emergency medicine workforce innovations and/or strategies. Furthermore, it provides guidance to emergency preparedness for optimal delivery of care in future health-related crises.

Development of a novel pediatric point-of-care ultrasound question bank using a modified Delphi process.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Measuring pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) fellow competency in point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is important for ensuring adequate training and performance. Assessment may include direct observation, image review, quality assessment, and written examination. The purpose of this study was to develop a pediatric POCUS question bank that could subsequently be used as a POCUS assessment for graduating PEM fellows. METHODS: We organized a 10-person question writing group (QWG). Eight hold expertise in POCUS and two hold expertise in medical education. Members of the QWG created questions within four domains: interpretation/diagnosis (50% of questions), anatomy (30%), physics (10%), and pitfalls (10%). POCUS faculty ascertained content validity and the medical education faculty revised questions for syntax and readability. In 2016, we recruited 31 pediatric POCUS experts. The majority were members of the P2 Network, an international group of experts and leaders in PEM POCUS, to participate in three iterative rounds of a modified Delphi process to review, revise, and establish consensus on the question bank. RESULTS: Thirty-one pediatric POCUS experts participated in the three rounds of the modified Delphi process and evaluated 437 questions developed by the expert panel. Forty-nine percent (n = 216) of the questions were accepted in round 1, 30% (n = 130) in round 2, and 11% (n = 47) in the final round. The final question bank included 393 questions covering 17 pediatric POCUS applications. CONCLUSION: We developed a 393-question bank to aid in the assessment of PEM POCUS competency. Future work includes piloting the questions with PEM fellows to evaluate the response process and implementing the assessment tool to establish a minimum passing score.