From Kevin MD:
A recent article in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, examined this group of children — those not critically ill but who were transferred to a pediatric emergency department for care. The authors premise is that, if a significant number of those children were discharged home from the receiving emergency department, they most likely could have been handled appropriately at the ED that sent them. There should be some caveats with that assumption, though. One is that sometimes the availability of a pediatric subspecialist, for example a pediatric cardiologist to evaluate a child with a possible heart problem, allows a dedicated pediatric ED to send home children because they have the expertise to make that decision. But I have certainly seen children flown in by helicopter from another hospital and then get sent home. They didn’t need the expensive (and sometimes dangerous) helicopter ride.
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