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Emergency care with a kid-friendly face
By Terri Parsell Hilmey; photos by kc kratt
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Dr. Kathleen Lillis with two of her young patients.
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A trip to the emergency room is something everyone would like to avoid, but it’s especially frightening to have to take a child there—both for the child and for the parent. They’re both already agitated, and one of them is in pain, so the last place in the world they want to be is an intimidating environment with other injured and ill people of all ages. Pediatric & Adolescent Urgent Care of Western New York (PAUCWNY/Peds Urgent Care) is a new medical facility in Williamsville whose aim is to change that dynamic for the better, creating a more conducive environment for young people to get help when it’s so sorely (and, one might add, urgently) needed.
Until now, the choices for specialized emergency care for children have been limited to Women & Children’s Hospital of Buffalo (WCHOB), which can mean a long drive into the city; a generalized urgent care center; or the emergency room at Millard Fillmore Suburban. Now, between the hours of 4 p.m. and midnight (and noon to midnight on weekends and holidays), parents can take their children to a place that’s uniquely designed for kids (in terms of décor, staff expertise, and appropriate-sized equipment). For parents in the Northtowns, the new center’s location on the corner of Maple Road and Ayer in Williamsville makes it all the more convenient.
Dr. Kathleen Lillis has nearly ten years of experience as Medical Director of the Pediatric Emergency Department of WCHOB. Peds Urgent Care is her brainchild—the only urgent care facility in Erie County specializing in the care of children from birth to age twenty-one—and will be offering many of the services that a traditional emergency room can. They can administer intravenous fluids if a child is dehydrated, perform x-rays and lab tests, suture lacerations, splint fractures, and care for a variety of other basic surgical and medical procedures, and also deal with respiratory crises (including asthma attacks and bronchiolitis, which often occur in babies during the winter months), all with a child-centric focus. “There is always going to be a pediatric emergency physician on site, and all of the nurses are also trained extensively in pediatric emergency medicine,” says Dr. Lillis.
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Because a young patient’s own physician is more familiar with prior health issues and family background, it may not be the best idea to take children to any facility without consulting their pediatrician first. “The big key is the communication between the pediatric urgent care and the pediatrician,” says Dr. Lillis, “because we’re not an alternative to a child’s regular pediatrician; we’re here to assist and supplement that care. In most instances, a child’s own pediatrician will have someone on-call during off hours, and they should be consulted prior to [a patient] being brought to our facility.” Peds Urgent Care will be using an electronic records system so that a doctor can transfer records and have them transferred back immediately after care.
One of the key factors in having a facility geared specifically towards children is the ambience, with staff catering to children’s psychological and emotional needs as well as their physical health, and an environment that is much more welcoming and less intimidating than a traditional emergency room. “I hate those rolls of paper that go up and over examination tables, and I don’t like the stiff little hospital gowns for children, either,” says Dr. Lillis. “It’s not necessary. It’s entirely possible to be set up as a sterile medical facility without looking like one. Four of our exam rooms are going to be set up like bedrooms, with colored sheets, beds, and nightstands. The children can have little pajama bottoms and tee shirts to wear, so that they will be more comfortable, as well. We’re going to try to make it as much like the home setting as we possibly can.”
With that vow in mind, parents from the city northward now have an attractive, convenient, after-hours option for pediatric specialized care—from something as serious as a frightening asthma attack to something as simple as a pencil eraser up the nose.
Terri Parsell Hilmey is the editor of the Spree Medical Resource Guide.
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