Care Close to Home: Emergency Department Services at Arkansas Children’s Northwest

Emergency Room Nursing Director at Arkansas Children’s Northwest Keith Veit shared the importance of offering this level of emergency care in the region.

What is the significance of opening the only pediatric emergency room in the region for the immediate community and the surrounding area?

Keith: Our focus is uniquely put on the children’s needs. Different age groups—adolescents, toddlers, school-age children—all have different needs and considerations. Northwest Arkansas is one of the fastest-growing areas in the country. We see an opportunity to serve an approximate 11-county region and within that area, about 200,000 children.

What are the benefits of taking your child to a pediatric ER compared to an adult hospital or urgent care?

Keith: The average emergency room sees a 15-20 percent pediatric volume. So, that tells you that 80 percent of their focus is on the adult population. One hundred percent of our focus is pediatric specific. That means our providers—our doctors, our nurses, our therapists—those providers all come with a unique set of pediatric skills and focus. So, a parent bringing their child to a pediatric emergency room is going to get a one hundred percent focus on their child.

What type of services does the ER at ACNW provide?

Keith: Our focus is Care Close to Home. We have orthopedics, general surgery and more. In some regards, you could say we are a formal triage unit for our hospital in Little Rock. We do not have a pediatric ICU, as of yet. The Emergency Room is prepared and trained to be an impromptu ICU for a matter of hours as we wait for Angel One to transport a child to Little Rock.

We’ve already treated more than 1,000 children in this emergency room and many of those would have likely been transferred to Little Rock had we not been here.