Paediatric emergency department, open 24/7

The emergency department is for children and young people who have developed a sudden illness or who have suffered trauma and must be examined as soon as possible or undergo immediate diagnostic and therapeutic interventions.

It’s a service for emergencies and medical emergencies open 24/7, which includes urgent and acute problems that cannot be resolved by a paediatrician, general practitioner or any other local service available. If this is not the case, your paediatrician or family doctor is your main contact.

The paediatric emergency department, part of the emergency and paediatric emergency department, has a Short-Stay Observation ward. Triage The nursing staff is committed to providing children the best care in accordance with the correct priority criteria (Triage): a system that follows strict rules and is internationally recognised. The most urgent cases are treated first through the assignation of a colour code by the specially trained medical staff present in the Emergency Room, who consider the child’s situation and assigns them a colour that defines their priority access to medical examination.

When assigned a low priority colour code (green and white), the wait can be long but in the emergency room, the worst patients are examined first and not those who arrive first. Colour codes

Welcome and discharge Yellow and red-coded children admissions and discharges are immediately brought to the emergency room, while others with green and white codes are invited to sit in the dedicated waiting room. The reception staff, recognisable by their uniforms and clearly visible location, is on hand to provide information and guidance on the service.

Particular care is taken to work closely with the family paediatrician, both through short reports accompanying discharge and, where possible, direct telephone contact, in order to ensure continuity of care for the child and their family.

In addition to medical emergencies, the emergency department operates in close collaboration with the hospital’s Trauma Center for all children who experience either an isolated or multiple trauma (up to age 14 years). The Paediatric Emergency Department is working with the Careggi Poison Centre for the consultation and treatment of child poisoning.

Short-Stay Observation ward The doctor assigned to the emergency department may, if necessary, rest the child in the short-stay observation ward for a period of usually no more than 36 hours.

Eight beds are available when it’s necessary to stabilise or observe the clinical evolution of the child, run diagnostic tests in order to produce better framework, reduce improper hospitalisation and accelerate the intra-hospital care pathway, activating directly, if necessary, the hospital’s specialist services.