As a parent, you know how difficult it can be to care for an ailing infant. The situation can be even more intense if your child happens to fall ill when you are on a family vacation or during the night when you cannot reach your regular pediatrician.
The emergence of pediatric urgent care facilities and pediatric emergency care departments has helped parents to deal with medical emergencies, which may have otherwise been difficult to handle.
Both of these medical facilities are child-centered and are equipped in different capacities to deal with your child’s medical issue.
What Is the Difference Between Pediatric Urgent Care and Pediatric Emergency Care?
24-hour pediatric urgent care clinics are equipped to deal with non-life threatening pediatric medical conditions such as minor lacerations and burns, asthma attacks, coughs, and the flu.
Pediatric or kids emergency care departments are trained and equipped to handle life-threatening pediatric medical cases. Such medical issues may include seizures, concussions that result in unconsciousness, protruding broken bones, persistent high fever, difficulties breathing, poison ingestion, and drug overdose.
What Is Emergency Pediatric Care?
Pediatric emergency care stems from combining both emergency and pediatric medical subspecialties. In this case, it involves dealing with pediatric medical emergencies that are life-threatening and require immediate and prompt medical attention.
Emergency pediatric care entails dealing with undifferentiated and often not scheduled pediatric medical issues. These medical conditions may vary from acute illnesses to sudden injuries, all of which require immediate medical attention.
It is, however, essential to note that both urgent and emergency pediatric care cannot replace regular pediatric care. Urgent and emergency pediatric facilities are only meant to fill in for your regular pediatrician during emergencies when they are unavailable or closed for the day.
What Is the Importance of Pediatric Care?
Pediatric care is vital for your child to ensure that they stay healthy and strong even as they go through the different growth stages.
Pediatric care is usually handled by our pediatrician, who is trained and board-certified to deal with the diagnosis, treatment, and control of childhood diseases. As your child grows, they will have varying medical needs at each stage.
These medical needs may vary from treating various childhood infections to getting vaccinations that serve to protect them from significant diseases.
From the moment your child is born, it is crucial to look for a pediatrician. Your pediatrician will be able to administer proper pediatric care and ensure that your child stays healthy, both physically and mentally, as they tick the various milestones of growth and development.
Our Pediatricians offer preventive health services that have managed to drastically bring down the rates of infant mortality within Harker Heights.
They also help to treat and diagnose medical issues such as chronic illnesses and infections that could otherwise harm your child’s overall health and wellness.
At What Age Does Pediatric Care End?
Pediatricians are trained and specialize in treating children from the moment they are born to when they hit 18 years of age. At the age of 18, your child can be referred to a primary health physician that can handle all their medical needs.
What Are the Responsibilities of a Pediatrician?
A pediatrician will ideally work to ensure that your child is healthy and at per with all the required vaccinations.
From the moment your child is born till the age of two, you will frequently have scheduled visits with your pediatrician, and once they hit two to five years of age, these visits will be scheduled once or twice a year.
At six years old and above, your child will have annual health checkups or visits when they are ill.
Some of the pediatrician’s responsibilities include:
- Conducting thorough physical examinations
- Administering vaccinations
- Diagnosing and treating illnesses and infections or any other health issues
- Equip you with information on child nutrition, health, and safety and answer all your questions on the growth and development of your child
- Monitor your child’s developmental milestones
- Refer you to specialists when necessary
What Are the 5 Typical Duties of a Pediatrician?
- Examining patients
- Keeping detailed patient medical histories
- Coming up with strategic and customized treatment plans for their patients’ medical conditions
- Relaying all treatment plans and schedules clearly to the parents of the patient
- Ordering and conducting medical tests when necessary
So if you are in search of children’s emergency services near Harker Heights or urgent pediatric care in Harker Heights, you need not panic.
At Express ER (Harker Heights), we have a highly skilled and child-friendly pediatric wing that will work to ensure your child’s overall health and well-being is as it should be.
