Pediatrician Versus 911: Comparative Analysis

As a parent, one is trusted with the ultimate responsibility of taking care of another human being. Two of the most helpful resources to call in case of emergency that you aren’t prepared for are your pediatrician and 911. In order to assure that the appropriate measures are taken in times of emergency parents should be educated on whether they should call one or the other. Instinctually, most people might think that calling 911 immediately is the only and most necessary action needed to receive medical attention for their child, but studies have shown that contacting your pediatrician before calling 911 can be more effective. In the article, ​Calling 911!

What role does a pediatrician play?, ​it states that when a patient contacted their pediatrician before calling 911​ ​they were 3.2 times more likely to be admitted and 1.7 times more likely to have a medical intervention compared to those who didn’t (Grossman et al., 2013). This shows that contacting your pediatrician before 911 can actually lead to a higher chance of being attended in a hospital. This is important because it can be the difference between getting the optimal medical attention in a time when it is needed the most.​. ​More factors that can guide you in deciding whether to contact your pediatrician or 911 are the risks and benefits, professional resources, community resources, and health promotion recommendations. Knowing the risks and benefits can help you make your decision by learning about some of distinctions between contacting your pediatrician and 911.

Knowing the risks and benefits of calling your pediatrician or 911 can be difference between life or death for a child in case of emergency. The benefits of calling your pediatrician are distinct from those of calling 911. This is vital information that can help shape whether you call them in case of an emergency. One risk of calling 911 before consulting your pediatrician is that the healthcare professionals attending you are used to seeing a variety of ailments on a daily basis and may not be familiar with your specific case. Without background knowledge or a medical history on the patient, there can be holes in the methods used to diagnosis and treat them. On the other hand, contacting your pediatrician before calling 911 can have benefits. If a pediatrician has experience caring for children and has a relationship with the caregivers they can provide care around the specific needs and medical history of that child in case of an injury or illness. In addition to this, pediatricians are qualified and knowledgeable enough to advise on whether an injury or illness can be treated at home, an urgent care clinic, an office, or if you need to go to an emergency room. Another benefit of getting advice from your pediatrician is that it can save you from the costs of having to make a visit to an emergency room and calling an ambulance. According to the article ​Average Cost of an ER Visit​, going to an emergency room if you don’t have insurance can range from $150 to $20,000 and the cost of an ambulance can exceed $1,000. In some cases, you might be able to resolve the problem yourself which can save you from an unnecessary bill that can be debilitating in some cases. One of the best ways to be prepared for these types of scenarios is to utilize as many resources of knowledge as you can.

Staying informed on various topics regarding children can be the best way to make decisions when it comes to their health. Two of the best resources to do this are utilizing professional and community resources. One example of a professional resource is ​The Center for Disease Control and Prevention​. They provide useful information about the various health and safety aspects of raising children of all ages. Reading this information about diseases and conditions, such as birth defects and the flu, can help you make important decisions over your child’s health. If you know your child isn’t in any immediate danger, you can consult your pediatrician before calling 911 and get his advice on what to do about the condition. In contrast, if you know your child needs immediate care you can make the decision that you need to make in order to get the fastest care possible. Another way to access this type of valuable information is to utilize community resources, such as ​Healthy Chicago Babies​. This is an organization that provides a pool of information surrounding various important aspects of raising a baby, such as breastfeeding, premature birth, and vaccines. This is more information that can help you make difficult decisions, if necessary, as a parent when it comes to your child’s health. Health promotion recommendations can also be a useful source for knowledge on how to prevent emergencies in the first place.

Health promotion recommendations can also help you in making decisions on whether or not to call your pediatrician or 911 as well. An example of this is postpartum newborn home visits (PPNBHV). According to the article ​Postpartum Newborn Home Visits​, a first time mom can make an arrangement to have a registered nurse visit your house periodically up until the child is two years old. The nurse, in this instance, can advise the mother on whether or not she should contact a pediatrician or call 911 in an unfamiliar situation. This can be extremely helpful to first-time mothers that don’t necessarily have the experience to make difficult decisions.

Another source for Health promotion recommendations if you can’t have a nurse to advise you, are organizations like ​Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. ​In the article ​When You Should Call the Doctor or Dial 911​, it gives you useful information and advice on how to detect whether or not you need to go to a hospital right away or call a pediatrician. An example is information that you should have ready if you do decide to call your pediatrician, such as your child’s temperature, past medical problems, and immunization record. All of these things can help decide what to do in the specific situation you are in and make the process go by faster and smoother. The last type of health promotion recommendation is to take preventative measures in order to provide a wider range of capabilities to be able to rely on. An example of this is using an online infant CPR training kit. In this example, the infant CPR training kit can help you identify if a child is in danger of choking and give you the capability to save their life yourself instead of having to call 911. These types of skills, which can be the difference between life or death, can be learned in as little as 20 minutes and can be done from home. The health promotion recommendations mentioned can help you make the right choice and be prepared in case of a situation where your pediatrician or 911 might have to get involved.

In conclusion, a parent should take as many measures possible in order to be prepared in a situation where they might have to get their pediatrician or 911 involved with their child’s health. Being informed on various different topics, such as diseases, at home safety, and community safety can help a parent be as preventative as possible to avoid serious situations in which this is needed. It is also important to be informed on these topics in the scenario that something serious was to happen and action is needed to be taken. Knowing what to do in certain scenarios can be difference between getting the medical care needed and saving a child’s life.

Calling your pediatrician in most cases can be helpful because they can talk you through a situation that is manageable at home or give you advice on what to do otherwise, but in a scenario where you know that time is critical, you might need to go directly to 911 and get the medical attention required right away. The decision on whether you should call your pediatrician or 911 varies on the severity, urgency, and information known about the issue that is occuring with the child.

References

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2. When You Should Call the Doctor or Dial 911. (2017, June 20). Retrieved from https://www.chla.org/blog/rn-remedies/when-you-should-call-the-doctor-or-dial-911
3. Infant CPR Anytime​®​ Training Kits. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://cpr.heart.org/en/courses/infant-cpr-anytime-training-kits
4. Infant Health & Wellness. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.healthychicagobabies.org/healthy-families/infant-health-infant-wellness/
5. Information for Parents of Infants & Toddlers (Approximate Ages 0-3). (2019, November 6). Retrieved from ​https://www.cdc.gov/parents/infants/index.html
6. Grossman, D., Kunkov, S., Kaplan, C., & Crain, E. F. (2013, June). Calling 911! What role does the pediatrician play? Retrieved from ​https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23714760
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9. https://www.scdhec.gov/health/family-planning/pregnancy/postpartum-newborn-home-visits
10. https://www.chla.org/blog/rn-remedies/when-you-should-call-the-doctor-or-dial-911
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14. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23714760
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