CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF ALABAMA

The Children’s Hospital of Alabama is a 190-bed pediatric specialty hospital, serving seriously ill and injured children from throughout the state of Alabama as well as from 38 other states. The hospital is responsible for the education of pediatric house-staff of the University of Alabama School of Medicine, and serves as the exclusive provider of pediatric emergency care in the Medical Center. The Emergency Department of the Children’s Hospital is a modern, state-of-the-art pediatric emergency center with approximately 65,000 visits.

Physically, the facility is divided into the Emergency Department and the Acute Care Clinic. The emergency facility itself is responsible for the care and resuscitation of non-ambulatory and seriously ill or injured children, usually transported by ambulance or aero-medical systems. The Acute Care Clinic treats a large number of children with ambulatory pediatric illnesses. Patient care, in both units, is supervised by Pediatric Emergency Medicine faculty from the Department of Pediatrics. In addition to its own integrated radiographic facility, the Children’s Hospital Emergency Department has a pediatric trauma unit, staffed by pediatric faculty, house-staff, and Emergency Medicine residents. Senior surgical house-staff rotate through Children’s Hospital for their pediatric surgical experience. The unit receives a significant number of critically injured children, serving as the initial stabilization and treatment area for all injured patients prior to further intensive care or operative treatment.

Besides fine emergency facilities, the Children’s Hospital boasts a comprehensive tertiary pediatric facility, including a burn unit, neurosurgical unit and pediatric intensive care unit staffed by pediatric intensivists, pediatric surgeons, and other appropriate subspecialties. The Emergency Medicine housestaff will rotate through both units of the pediatric Emergency Care facility, as well as the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit as part of their experience. The Regional Newborn ICU, physically located at University Hospital, is staffed by Neonatologists from the Department of Pediatrics, and is another critical care rotation in which Emergency Medicine residents will participate.