Thursday, October 8, 1998
![[children's hospital]](/editions/1998/10/08/hospital_130x155.jpg)
(Ernest Coleman photo)
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The 300-bed Children's Hospital Medical Center operates the busiest pediatric emergency department in the United States.
How busy?
80,805 visits in fiscal year 1998, which ended June 30.
Most common problems treated in the emergency room: fever (includes ear infections, flu, infections); difficulty breathing (includes asthma); trauma; child abuse; drug - alcohol abuse.
1,100 trauma cases a year: 22 percent falls; 21 percent poisonings; 11 percent motor-vehicle accidents, 7 percent bicycle accidents.
59 percent of children injured in car-truck accidents are not wearing seat belts or are not in approved child safety seats.
240 of 1,500 University Hospital's annual Air Care helicopter flights deliver patients to Children's Hospital.
7,500 ambulance runs a year deliver children to the emergency department.
29 pediatric emergency medicine physicians on staff.
170 medical residents a year who do an emergency medicine rotation through the Emergency Department.
90 Emergency Department support staff: nurses, technicians, communications experts, unit clerks, etc. All 75 nurses are certified in pediatric advanced life support and trauma.
48 Hours segment: 44-minute television show, culled from 250 20-minute tapes.
20-person 48 hours crew (three correspondents; four producers; three associate producers, five two-person film - sound crews). How children treated are doing
![[children's hospital]](/editions/1998/10/08/hospital_419x500.jpg)