In this issue of JUCM, we inaugurate a new focus on treating children in the urgent care center. This will manifest in the form of semiregular articles by clinicians who’ve made the commitment to focus on pediatric urgent care. The first, Approach to the Child with Chest Pain, appears on page XX.
We are not alone in recognizing that urgent care is ideally suited to the treatment of children whose presenting symptoms don’t warrant a trip to the emergency room, but whose caregivers recognize they have to be seen today (which, often, means a trip to the urgent care center). Take the Society for Pediatric Urgent Care. A study of its member centers is underway to assemble site, personnel, and operational metrics for pediatric urgent care clinics.
They’ve generously shared some of their preliminary findings with us. Here, an overview of the hours of operation at participating pediatric urgent care centers. As you’ll see, they offer a clue as to key attributes pediatric urgent care centers share with traditional urgent care centers: access to quality care that goes beyond the hours of traditional pediatric practices.
