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.

Six Diagnoses of Separation: Impact of COVID-19 on Pediatric Emergency Department Visits: A Multicenter Study.

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) arrived in the New York metropolitan area in early March 2020. Recommendations were made to self-quarantine within households and limit outside visits, including those to clinics and hospitals, to limit the spread of the virus. This resulted in a decrease in pediatric emergency department (ED) visits. However, it is unclear how this affected visits for some common diagnoses such as anxiety, appendicitis, asthma, headaches, seizures, and urinary tract infection (UTI). These diagnoses were chosen a priori, as they were felt to represent visits to the ED, for which the diagnoses would likely not be altered based on COVID exposure or quarantine due to their acute nature. OBJECTIVES: Our goal was to investigate the effect of COVID-19 on common pediatric diagnoses seen in the pediatric ED using a large multihospital database. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of consecutive pediatric patients (age ≤ 21 years) between March 1 and November 30 in 2019 and 2020 in 28 hospital EDs within 150 miles of New York City. We compared the change in the number of visits from 2019 to 2020 for the following diagnoses: anxiety, appendicitis, asthma, headache, seizures, and UTI. RESULTS: Our database contained 346,230 total pediatric visits. From 2019 to 2020, total visits decreased by 61%. Decreases for specific diagnoses were 75% for asthma, 64% for headaches, 47% for UTI, 32% for anxiety, 28% for seizures, and 18% for appendicitis (p value for each comparison < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: We found a marked decrease in ED visits for six common pediatric diagnoses after COVID-19 arrived in our area. We suspect that this decrease was due to recommendations to quarantine and fear of contracting the virus. Further studies on other diagnoses and potential complications due to the delay in seeking care are needed.

Cutaneous methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in a suburban community hospital pediatric emergency department.

BACKGROUND: Studies on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections have typically focused on pediatric and adult populations at urban tertiary care hospitals. Limited data exist on MRSA rates in skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI) in suburban community hospital pediatric emergency departments (PED). OBJECTIVES: To describe the prevalence of MRSA in SSTIs in a contemporary suburban community hospital PED population. METHODS: Patients 0-21 years old with SSTI wound cultures who were seen at our PED from 2003-2007 were studied. Data analyzed included type of infection (abscess vs. non-abscess), site of infection, and culture results. Chi-squared and t-tests were used as appropriate; p < 0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: During the study period, 204 cultures were obtained for SSTIs, 11 of which were contaminants. The subjects had a mean age of 12.9 years (SD 6.8 years); 60% were male. The prevalence of MRSA was 27%; MRSA was present in 30% of abscesses vs. 2.2% of non-abscess SSTI (p < 0.005). By year, the prevalence of MRSA was 10% in 2003, 31% in 2004, 33% in 2005, 31% in 2006, and 29% in 2007. No differences between MRSA and non-MRSA infections were present for gender, age, or site of infection. CONCLUSIONS: At our suburban community hospital pediatric ED, MRSA was present in 30% of all SSTI wound cultures; MRSA was unlikely with non-abscess SSTI. Our overall MRSA prevalence data among SSTIs are consistent with previously published reports in pediatric ED populations but may be less than those reported in the adult literature.

Optimizing the workforce: a proposal to improve regionalization of care and emergency preparedness by broader integration of pediatric emergency physicians certified by the American Board of Pediatrics.

BACKGROUND: Emergency care in the United States faces notable challenges with regard to children. In some jurisdictions, available resources are not sufficient to meet local needs. Physicians with specialty training in pediatric emergency care are largely concentrated in children's medical centers within larger urban areas. Rural emergency facilities, which are more likely to face ongoing staffing shortages in all specialties, are particularly deficient in pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) physicians. This paper addresses challenges in distribution of pediatric emergency care specialists into suburban and rural health care facilities, and proposes potential local and regional solutions to improve pediatric emergency care capabilities as well as to enhance disaster response in children. OBJECTIVES: The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) committee on PEM generated the objective to study and explore methods and strategies to address current challenges and shortcomings in the distribution of pediatric emergency physicians and to develop recommendations to improve access to emergency pediatric expertise in all care settings. A sub-committee was formed to generate a written report followed by full committee input. The content was reviewed by the ACEP Board of Directors. DISCUSSION: Pediatric emergency physicians are certified either by the American Board of Emergency Medicine or the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) depending on whether their training occurred through the emergency medicine or a pediatric residency program. ABP-certified PEM that account for the majority of PEM physicians, remain largely concentrated in urban tertiary pediatric care centers, primarily children's hospitals. By contrast to the resources, the majority of pediatric patients receive emergency care in emergency departments (EDs) outside this setting. The goal of our recommendations is to help regionalize PEM expertise, allowing sharing of such resources with facilities that have traditionally not had access to PEM expertise. Financial or low number of pediatric cases likely contributed to lack of PEM resources in suburban and rural EDs, although a significant factor for lack of access to ABP-certified PEM physicians may be local privilege and practice restrictions. Expanding the scope of practice for ABP-certified PEM physicians beyond traditionally assigned arbitrary age limits to include selective adult patients has the potential to alleviate credentialing barriers and offset the financial and volume concerns while enhancing preparedness efforts, resource utilization, and access to specialized pediatric emergency care. CONCLUSION: Recognition that the training of ABP-certified PEM physicians allows for these individuals to safely care for selective adult patients with common disease patterns that extend beyond traditionally assigned arbitrary pediatric age limits has the potential to improve resource dissemination and utilization, allowing for greater access to pediatric emergency physicians in currently underserved settings.

Injectable dexamethasone sodium phosphate administered orally? A pharmacokinetic analysis of a common emergency department practice.

BACKGROUND: The injectable formulation of dexamethasone has been administered orally, for the treatment of pediatric asthma and croup. The practice is followed in emergency departments around the country, but pharmacokinetic data supporting this practice are lacking. OBJECTIVES: This study evaluated the relative bioavailability and pharmacokinetics of dexamethasone sodium phosphate for injection (DSPI) administered orally compared to dexamethasone oral concentrate (DOC) in healthy adults. METHODS: This was an open label, crossover study of 11 healthy adults 18 to 45 years of age. All subjects received 8 mg of dexamethasone oral concentrate initially. After a 1-week wash-out period, subjects received 8 mg of DSPI administered orally. Dexamethasone levels were measured by liquid chromatography in tandem mass spectrometry. Cmax and area under the curve (AUC (0-t) and AUC (0-∞)) were calculated and compared between groups using the paired t test. RESULTS: The mean ± SD AUC(0-t) for dexamethasone oral concentrate and DSPI were 5497.23 ± 1649 and 4807.82 ± 1971) ng/dL/hr, respectively; 90% confidence interval (CI) was 78.8%-96.9%. The mean ± SD AUC(0-∞) for dexamethasone oral concentrate and DSPI were 6136.43 ± 2577 and 5591.48 ± 3075 ng/dL/hr, respectively; 90% CI was 79.0% -105.2%. Mean Cmax ± SD for DOC and DSPI were 942.94 ± 151 and 790.92 ± 229 ng/dL, respectively; 90% CI 76.8%-91.7%. The relative bioavailability of DSPI administered orally was 87.4% when using AUC(0-t) and 91.1% when using AUC(0-∞). The calculated absolute bioavailability was 75.9%. CONCLUSIONS: DSPI is not bioequivalent to dexamethasone oral concentrate when administered orally. The existing literature supports the efficacy of DSPI despite this. Dosing adjustments may be considered.

Evaluation of promotility agents to limit the gut bioavailability of extended-release acetaminophen.

BACKGROUND: Erythromycin and neostigmine have both been shown to act as gastrointestinal promotility agents. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to determine whether either erythromycin or neostigmine, administered parenterally, would result in lower serum levels of a recently ingested drug, when compared with placebo. METHODS: Ten volunteers ingested 1300 mg of extended-release acetaminophen on each of three occasions. They were then given an intravenous dose of erythromycin (200 mg), neostigmine (2 mg), or placebo. Each volunteer received all three treatments in a counterbalanced fashion, each separated from the next by at least two weeks. Blood for serum acetaminophen concentration was drawn at 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8 h after treatment, and the serum acetaminophen elimination curves were compared for the three treatments. RESULTS: The elimination phase of the curves did not differ among the treatments as a result of administration of the prokinetic agents. CONCLUSIONS: Under the present conditions, administration of erythromycin and neostigmine as prokinetic agents failed to alter the kinetics of an ingested dose of sustained-release acetaminophen.