Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship

The Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship Program at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children trains physicians in advanced skills in pediatric emergency medicine with an emphasis on the care of acutely ill and injured children. The program‘s objective is to yield competent physicians who are capable of teaching pediatric emergency medicine, conducting quality research (a requirement for board certification in pediatric emergency medicine), and demonstrating responsible administrative skills. Physicians in the program acquire adequate knowledge of medical and legal issues, finances, hospital organizational structures, quality assurance, personnel management, patient services, and child advocacy issues.

The fellowship program is designed specifically to give physicians the opportunity to care for pediatric patients. During rotations, fellows in the program are engaged in several areas of special pediatric training including trauma, critical care, anesthesia, transport, research, toxicology, and caring for victims of child abuse. Electives in the program include pediatric surgery, pediatric radiology, pediatric ophthalmology, pediatric neurology, plastic surgery/hand surgery, pediatric dermatology, pediatric ENT, sports medicine, and pediatric orthopedics.

About the Hospital

Rotations are done at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, a full-service children‘s hospital and the primary teaching facility for the Thomas Jefferson University Pediatric Residency Program. The hospital is located in Wilmington, Delaware, less than 30 minutes from the Jefferson campus in Philadelphia. Opened in 1984, the hospital has 180 beds, including a 22-bed pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). The PICU team runs a busy transport service covering a wide geographical area that includes southern Delaware, southeastern Pennsylvania, and northern Maryland adding to the diversity of cases managed at the duPont Hospital for Children.

Advanced computer systems are available to all program participants for patient care activities, electronic mail, word processing, Internet access, and library research functions. The original hospital building (opened in 1940) has been converted into an administration and research center and includes an on-site child care center for children of staff.

Emergency Medicine Division

The Division of Emergency Medicine, part of the duPont Hospitals Department of Pediatrics, is staffed with 13 full-time and two part-time board-certified pediatric emergency medicine physicians who supervise the emergency room 24 hours a day. In addition, pediatric, family, and emergency medicine residents from various programs rotate through the ER. The 24-bed emergency room is a 911-receiving facility and logs approximately 30,000 visits annually, exposing physicians to a wide scope of pediatric emergencies. The ER also includes a separately staffed four-bed Fast Track area which is open during the hours of 1:00 PM - 1:00 AM daily.

The division has an active role in teaching residents and medical students and is an award-winning teaching division, as voted upon by the residents. Medical students from Jefferson Medical College rotate through the hospital for their pediatric training. In addition, an emergency medicine rotation