Emergency Medical Services for Children: The Report From the Institute of Medicine

The scope and complexity of the problems posed by attempting to provide emergency medical services for children (EMS-C) are great. Of the 90 million emergency department visits in the United States each year, one third, or 30 million, are by children. Many of these are due to injury. In 1990, 266 000 injured children were admitted to hospitals; 20 000 children died of injuries in 1988 and many more were disabled permanently. In addition to this human cost, the monetary cost of childhood injuries has been estimated to be 7. 5 billion annually. 1 Most emergency department visits by children, however, are for illnesses, many of which may be serious, such as asthma, pneumonia, or bacterial meningitis.