What Is Pediatric Acute Care?

A pediatrician who works with children with severe illnesses or injury provides pediatric acute care.

In the world of health care, it is common for doctors to throw out two words — chronic and acute. The first word, “chronic,” means living with an illness or the aftermath of an injury for a long time or having it constantly recur. In comparison, “acute” relates to a severe illness or injury, sometimes difficult to treat.

Introduction to pediatric acute care

As part of pediatric acute care, a pediatrician focuses on treating infants, young children and teenagers. The goal is to help the patient recover, so they can go on to enjoy a healthy life. This type of care covers a broad range of conditions and treatments. For both illnesses and injuries, this includes keeping patients pain-free and providing rehabilitation and support to the child and their parents.

In many cases, a child first sees the family’s primary care physician. However, without getting better, even with treatment, the doctor would likely refer the parents to a pediatrician who provides pediatric acute care. A common misconception is this type of doctor only sees patients with life-threatening illnesses. In reality, the pediatrician also treats patients suffering from injuries as well as common childhood illnesses.

Conditions treated

Following are some examples of the things a pediatrician who provides pediatric acute care treats:

Asthma
Diabetes
Brain trauma
Severe infections, like pneumonia and those affecting the ear and sinus
Injuries from falls, car accidents, skateboard riding, rollerblading and sports
Broken bones that do not heal
Cuts and burns

While some pediatric acute care provided by a pediatrician involves less serious injuries and illnesses, others are life-threatening. Depending on the physician, they may be part of a hospital’s critical care unit for children. In that case, they would take care of younger patients in ICU. Other times, they work in both inpatient and outpatient settings.

Sometimes, a pediatrician provides a patient with acute care due to a genetic illness. Other times, they treat an injury or a child who becomes ill. Regardless, the pediatrician works to uncover the root of the problem, making it possible to provide proper treatment. Usually, the pediatrician has training on medical equipment used specifically for children with acute illnesses or injuries.

What it comes down to is that a pediatrician who offers pediatric acute care has experience working with infants, toddlers and teens suffering from long-term problems. Even when taking a child to an emergency room, most of the larger hospitals have this type of pediatrician on staff. There are also urgent care clinics that focus on this kind of care.

Providing treatment

For children who require pediatric acute care, pediatricians provide many different treatments. Obviously, the solution depends on the illness or injury.

The doctor will first make an accurate diagnosis. They will also monitor their patients, prescribe medication, oversee children in both ICU and PICU and supervise other medical staff.

Seeking medical care

Typically, a parent will have their child seen by a family doctor or pediatrician first. After performing an examination and gathering information, that individual may determine that the child needs more intervention in the form of pediatric acute care. If you have a child with a long-term or difficult to treat illness or injury, then talk to your pediatrician about further or additional treatment.

Request an appointment here: https://prempediatrics.com or call Prem Pediatrics at (949) 661-2455 for an appointment in our San Clemente office.

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