The Pediatric Emergency at Sidra Medicine has shown effective waiting and treatment times for patients.
The average length of stay at the pediatric emergency was 2 hours and 24 minutes, with 87 percent of patients treated and discharged within four hours.
“Given the condition of many children we receive at the Pediatric Emergency Services, we are managing quite well with treatment times,” Division Chief and Senior attending physician, Emergency Medicine at Sidra Medicine, Dr. Sudhakar Adusumilli, told The Peninsula.
He said the average stay at the Pediatric Emergency is from arrival of the patient to either the time sent home or admitted and transferred as an inpatient to the main hospital.
The Pediatric Emergency at Sidra Medicine continues to operate as Qatar’s Level 1 pediatric trauma center, offering evidence-based best practice care to children aged 0-18 years.
According to Dr. Adusumilli, Pediatric Emergency follows the Emergency Severity Index (ESI), which is a five-level emergency department (ED) triage algorithm that provides clinically relevant stratification of patients into five groups from 1 (most urgent) to 5 (least urgent) on the basis of acuity and resource needs.
“We carefully assess each patient’s condition according to the ESI in a category ranging from Level 1 (for patients in critical condition) to Level 5 (for non-critical patients). By determining the severity of a child’s emergency, we can start prioritising their treatment to ensure they receive the quality care they need as soon as possible,” said Dr. Adusumilli.
Patients who are categorised in Levels 4 and 5 are transferred to the Pediatric Urgent Care division. This usually applies to patients over 3 months old who do not require special care for behavioural, psychological reasons and who are not injured.
“Among the patients we receive, approximately 35 percent are high acuity patients (ESI 1-3) and about 65 percent are low acuity patients (ESI 4 and 5),” said Dr. Adusumilli.
According to the annual report, in 2021, Sidra Medicine had close to 92,000 children and young people come to the Pediatric Emergency with nearly 540 Tier 1 and Tier 2 trauma cases. Among them over 4,600 children were admitted as inpatients to the main hospital.
The Urgent Care Services at Sidra Medicine, which addresses the needs of children with non-threatening illnesses or injuries, saw 14,568 children. As pioneers of the Sidra Child Advocacy Program which in 2021 handled over 220 cases, it continues to support children who have been victims of abuse or neglect. Its flagship Qatar Poison Center, a free helpline offering poison management advice, fielded over 2,100 calls.
