Emergency Medicine

The mission of the Division of Emergency Medicine is to strive daily for the health and welfare of acutely ill and injured children and their families. To this end, the goal is to provide safe, consistent, high-quality services that are evidence based while promoting collaborative teaching and clinical research that benefits the children of San Diego and beyond.

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A Message from the Division Chief

The Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine strives to be a center of excellence. The emergency department at Rady Children’s Hospital is the only tertiary care and Level 1 pediatric trauma center in San Diego, a center of clinical excellence for providing acute care to ill and injured children in San Diego, and a premiere site on the West Coast and beyond for providing emergency medical services to children. The Division is committed to excelling in clinical care, teaching, research, quality improvement, community service, global health, and physician wellness.

The Division consists of 50 PEM attending physicians, 3 pediatricians, 16 Urgent Care pediatricians, and 5 allied health professionals providing the vast majority of pediatric emergency care for San Diego County. The main campus ED has a census of 103,000+ visits per year, with 16,000+ per year at our satellite location. The PEM Division supports a flourishing ACGME-accredited PEM fellowship, a POCUS fellowship, and is the training site for over 200 residents from multiple programs, UCSD medical students, and PA students. Faculty provide high-quality training and teaching to these learners.

Division Chief, Emergency Medicine, UCSD Dept. of Pediatrics

Vincent Wang, M.D.
Division Chief

Emergency Care for Children

The Sam S. and Rose Stein Emergency Care Center at Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego is the only emergency care center in the region dedicated to caring for kids and the only Level 1 pediatric trauma center in San Diego County. Each year, there are approximately 86,000 emergency care visits. Services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Emergency medicine services are also provided by our physicians at Rancho Springs Medical Center in Murrieta. Services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

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Education with the Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine

To continuously improve our quality of care, we are actively involved in research on diseases and conditions often seen in emergency care, including asthma, meningitis, appendicitis, Kawasaki disease, and mild traumatic brain injury. Additionally, our Division is a leading teaching program, training the best and brightest physicians here in San Diego and from across the nation. Since 2002, we have had an ACGME-accredited Pediatric Emergency Medicine fellowship, and our physicians have won numerous teaching awards.

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Meet Our Faculty

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Emergency Medicine Division Highlights

Research

Space Time Maps of Children with Perforated Appendicitis in California

Perforated appendicitis is a well-documented child health disparity. This work highlights the importance of geographic location in pediatric health. Using space-time analysis, we gained insight on how rural living and poverty might impact pediatric appendicitis outcomes. Learn more »