Funding outcome

Emergency Departments (EDs) are an important health resource for all Canadians. Twenty-four hours per day, every day of the year, EDs provide care for medically ill and injured patients. Most children requiring emergency care will receive their care in an ED that cares for patients of any age. Such EDs are called general EDs. In major urban centres, there are also EDs that care only for children (age<18 years) and these are called pediatric EDs. These two different types of EDs will usually have doctors that have different training in emergency medicine, with pediatric EDs having doctors who have specific emergency medicine training focused on patients who are children. There are not enough doctors with pediatric emergency training to work at all types of EDs. There has not been much research on the similarities and differences of the children who go to the different types of EDs and the care they receive in the ED. Some research conducted in other countries has shown differences in the tests ordered, medications given, and admissions to the hospital. We do not know if there are any such differences for pediatric and general EDs in Canada. This study will use two large datasets of children who went to pediatric or general EDs during 2020 to 2022. Data were collected as part of large research networks formed to better understand patients who had coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) or who were thought to have COVID-19. Our research findings will better understand the care of children in either type of ED so that children get the required care regardless of which ED they go to.