PEM Rules

Fever is one of the most common chief complaint in the Pediatric Emergency Department and tends to scare many parents, myself included. My previous scribe (and now an astute medical student) Victoria, researched what fever is? what it does? and answered the ultimate question, to treat or not to treat??

Worrying about you or your patients is usually just a bad idea that does not serve us well, but what about just being concerned? What does PGY really mean? and why you should sometime be more than just an Emergency Medicine Physician.

It has been over a year since I started PEM Rules and I would love to have some feedback. Have you used the rules in your practice? check out www.pemrules.com and submit any feedback you wish. 

We all know rule number 82 but sometimes forget to use it. Practicing protective medicine is something we all do but hopefully we keep it to a minimum and how to be a step ahead during the most crucial times.

I had the privilege to work with Dr. Rick Saladino when I was a fellow at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh when he served as the division chief. Rick taught me a lot of clinical medicine, research methods and most importantly he is the man behind many of the rules I now teach my residents and discuss in this podcast.

Some good rules about musculoskeletal chief complaints, how they relate to previous rules, how to always improve your skills and a reminder to think outside the box.

Pediatric Orthopedics is probably the subspecialty I consult most often and Dr. Sean Keyes is one of my favorites consultants to talk to. In this discussion I pick his brain about some important Pediatric Ortho principles.

Why I don’t recommend you ever run in the ER. How to spend your money during your training and how a doctor should really worry.

Though Infectious Diseases is not a very common subspecialty I consult from the ED, it is still one of my favorites. Great discussion with Dr. Levent about vaccination, fever and when antibiotics is truly needed. 

Sometimes there is just nothing to lose, so why not try? What do you do when you make mistakes? And how do you deal with the chaos of the ED?