Objective: To determine the availability of pain and anxiety management practices in all Israeli emergency departments which accept children, specifically looking for differences between accredited pediatric emergency medicine department and others.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey of all Israeli emergency departments which accept children was performed. One person at each institution was approached to complete the survey. Data were collected between May and June 2016 using an electronic survey tool.
Results: Responses were collected from 21 hospitals (95% response rate). Commonly available in all types of emergency departments were nurse ordered analgesia, medical clowns (in 95% of the hospitals), topical analgesia and oral sucrose solution. The accredited pediatric emergency medicine departments showed a tendency for more frequent use of all pharmacologic methods for pain and anxiety relief, specifically oxycodone and ketamine.
Conclusions: Overall, Israeli emergency departments have similar access to pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic pain and anxiety management strategies in children, but gaps still exist where not all attending physicians are pediatric emergency medicine trained. We suggest that certified pediatric emergency medicine physicians should be positioned in all emergency departments that accept children, with the motivation to progressively accredit all these emergency departments.
