"America's children deserve care that is better than the equivalent of a D grade.
This is a problem for kids every day," writes pediatric emergency physician Dr. Nancy Avis in the Los Angeles Times.
Avis, who works at Yale New Haven Children's Hospital, writes that the country is running out of pediatric emergency care as Covid-19 and other respiratory illnesses surge.
"More than 85% of children who need emergency care go to general emergency departments, which concurrently care for children and adults, instead of to specialized pediatric facilities," she writes.
"Research shows that many of those EDs are not pediatric ready or well-prepared to care for children," Avis writes.
"I also know a child's risk of dying from a life-threatening acute medical condition increases fourfold when an ED is not pediatric ready, meaning it does not have the pediatric-specific champions, competencies, policies, equipment, and other resources needed to provide high-quality emergency care for children."
Avis writes that the US health care system was designed for adults, and financial incentives for health systems to focus on adults have led to a pediatric-centric approach that has shrunk or closed pediatric intensive-care units.
"The result? Inadequateand vanishingaccess to optimal pediatric emergency
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