GEISINGER EMERGENCY DEPARTMENTS
A Broad Educational Platform in Pediatric Emergency Medicine
Geisinger operates three regional emergency departments in Danville and immediate surrounding communities. These include the Main Campus, Gesinger Bloomsburg Hospital and Geisinger Shamokin Area Community Hospital. The main Pediatric Emergency Department is located at the main hospital in Danville and is the only designated pediatric trauma center in the region. Since no site is more than a twenty minute drive away, our residents are assigned to each of these locations during their two dedicated Emergency Medicine blocks, one in each upper level year of training.
The majority of the time is spent on the main campus in the Pediatric ED, participating in the care of children with everything from routine otitis media and upper respiratory infections to fractures and even major trauma. Here, our residents learn from boarded Pediatric EM providers in a brand new facility that has been specially designed to handle the special needs of children.
About four shifts per rotation occur at the other two sites. We believe that it is important for our residents to have a better understanding of the capabilities of a typical community hospital ED as well as to have some added autonomy when treating typical pediatric acute visits. At these sites, residents are supervised by the same emergency department faculty who rotate through our Danville location, and can be linked to the Pediatric ED faculty by use of a highly sophisticated telehealth system. Geisinger believes that the use of this type of technology is an excellent way to bring pediatric specific care to remote areas that do not have specialty services. We want our residents to know how to utilize this technology to connect them with specialists remotely should they choose to practice in a rural environment.
Our program combines these experiences with a robust curriculum in Pediatric Urgent Care. Residents participate in six rotations at our Pediatric Urgent Care Clinic at Woodbine. There they are taught by pediatricians how to manage acute issues in an office setting. Residents engage in the management of children with typical illnesses as well as more concerning problems such as dehydration, asthma exacerbations and the febrile infant. Working in this environment permits residents to develop an understanding of when it is appropriate to mange a child in the office setting or when it is necessary to send them to an ED for a higher level of care.
Our program's curriculum provides our residents with a broad education in emergency and acute care. Our graduates are well prepared to handle ill children as they transition to the next steps of their career.