The Division of Emergency Medicine provides 24-hours per day, 365-days-per-year pediatric acute care coverage for local and regional children from birth through age 21. Emergency Services provide specialized physician, nursing, social, and environmental expertise in the management of urgent, emergent, and critical pediatric medical and surgical issues.
Emergency Medicine is dedicated to providing premier quality, up-to-date, consistent, safe, and efficient pediatric emergency care in a family-centered environment. By optimizing our operation, standards, and facilities, we ensure the highest quality of care and best practices. This focus on excellence and process improvement, both within the division and with our care delivery partners, has produced consistent, outstanding results relating to quality of care, patient satisfaction, length of stay, and other metrics of emergency medical care quality and service.
Close to 50 PEM physicians and approximately 30 clinical pediatric/APP providers care for patients in the Emergency Department (ED). Faculty physicians hold leadership positions in local, university, state, national, and international organizations. Division faculty are involved in primary and collaborative nationally-funded clinical research. A large staff of grant funded research associates supports the commitment to clinical research. Read more below.
Our pediatric emergency department is located at Seattle Children's Hospital that is affiliated with the University of Washington. We provide 24-hour, seven-days-a-week care for children in an acute or crisis situation. Emergency Medicine treats approximately 63,000 patients per year, with over 50% of all admissions to Seattle Children's starting in the emergency department.
We currently operate 44 dedicated ED beds. Our ED-based fast track is staffed from 3 pm to 12 am, 7 days a week. Through expanded capacity and services, we have improved our ability to ensure quality and efficient care to our patients and community.
Emergency Medicine Faculty conduct research on problems related to the health and emergency care of children and adolescents. Specific areas of study include infectious disease, vaccines, drowning and prevention, pediatric resuscitation, simulation, analgesia and sedation, musculoskeletal injuries, injury management and prevention, patient safety, medical education, mental health, management of medical complexity, respiratory illnesses, informatics, quality, transport medicine, and global childhood malnutrition, and use of interpretation.
We are active in the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN), through individual leadership and through the Seattle Children’s led STELAR research node of PECARN.
Global health research interests include translation & disparities research, virtual simulation curriculum development and implementation, collaborative projects with PECC-Kenya fellowship, and childhood malnutrition in LMICs.
ED Research Team
Co-directors: Eileen Klein and Julie Brown
Research Manager: Bonnie Strelitz
We are a center for resident and other medical staff education in the acute management of ill and injured infants, children, and adolescents. Approximately 400 residents and students from the University of Washington pediatric and emergency medicine training programs as well as multiple family medicine programs train in our emergency department each year. We are involved in and invested with the education of medical, nursing, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, and paramedic students. These educational experiences include didactic curricula and significant hands-on training. Faculty members participate actively in education from local to the international level.
The division sponsors an ACGME-approved three-year Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship (PEM) program, currently providing training opportunities to three fellows per year. These fellows come from a background of either pediatrics or emergency medicine. The fellowship combines clinical education in pediatric emergency medicine along with an emphasis on clinical research. It offers the opportunity to obtain an MPH and all fellows may take classes at the UW School of Public Health. We use our resources to provide an excellent clinical and research education to our fellows.
We also have a combined PEM/Child Abuse Pediatric Fellowship opportunity
More information can be found on the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship page.
George (Tony) A. Woodward, MD, MBA
Professor Division Head, Emergency Medicine Medical Director, Emergency Services
Eileen J. Klein, MD, MPH
Professor Associate PEM Head for Faculty Affairs and Development PECARN, STELAR node PI
Pediatric Emergency Medicine
Seattle Children's Hospital
4800 Sand Point Way NE
Box 359300; MS MB.7.520
Seattle, WA 98105
(206) 987-2599