Emergency Department Overview

Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh’s state-of-the-art Emergency Department serves over 60,000 patients each year. The department is staffed primarily by pediatric residents, supplemented by emergency medicine and family practice residents on regular rotations. Supervision is provided by Pediatric Emergency Medicine faculty, and fellows. Surgeons and subspecialists are readily available for consultation.

The Pediatric Emergency Medicine faculty and fellows are members of the Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Our program is closely affiliated with the Center for Emergency Medicine of Western Pennsylvania, the home base for the University’s emergency medicine residency program. In addition to its educational and research agendas, the center operates an advanced air and ground interhospital transport service and is responsible for medical direction of the city’s prehospital care system.

The Center for Emergency Medicine also runs Peter M. Winter Insitute for Simulation Education and Research, a world renowned simulation center which provides high tech, hands-on training resuscitation and life support.

The Emergency Department includes two trauma bays, three critical care rooms, two surgical procedure rooms, two orthopaedic procedure rooms, nine extended stay / medical examination rooms, five medical examination rooms, one GYN room, one ENT room, one isolation room, six respiratory care rooms, two triage rooms and two waiting rooms. A radiology suite, suitable for obtaining plain radiographs, is located within the department. In addition, an urgent care facility (Fast Track) is staffed and run by members of the division. Fast Track is located adjacent to the Emergency Department. Fast Track includes one waiting room, five medical examination rooms and one surgical procedure room. Both the Emergency Department and Fast Track have an extensive computerized tracking system as well as access to a medical archive retrieval system and the Internet.