Patient Care

Timely and Compassionate Emergency Care

We are dedicated to providing seamless, expert medical care for each child and family. Our highly trained pediatric emergency staff, specialized facilities, and close relationship with the world-renowned Duke University Hospital Emergency Department enable us to offer the very best in emergency care.

We offer care for all medical emergencies (seizures, shock, respiratory distress, etc.) and traumatic injuries (motor vehicle and bicycle crashes, poisoning, drowning, etc.). In the course of diagnosis and treatment, every effort is taken to make children as comfortable as possible while being treated. In addition, parents are encouraged to help relieve their child's anxiety by taking an active role in their child's care.

As part of the Department of Pediatrics and Duke Children’s Hospital and Health Center, the PED can access consultative assistance from every pediatric medical and surgical pediatric subspecialty that exists.

Duke Children's Hospital & Health Center has received the American College of Surgeons' (ACS') highest level of certification for children's hospital surgical programs in its recently launched national verification program, signifying its commitment to providing the safest and highest-quality surgical care for pediatric patients.  Duke Children's is one of only five Level 1 centers in the country, and is the only one in the Mid-Atlantic region.

The Pediatric Emergency Department

The Pediatric Emergency Department functions within Duke’s main Emergency Department. The Duke ED serves as a tertiary care center and Level 1 Trauma Center to patients in North Carolina and surrounding states.

We have provided care to patients since 1945 and, with a new state-of-the-art and expanded facility that opened in April 2007, the ED is now equipped to treat over 90,000 patients a year.

The ED includes:

  • Pediatric ED: an 18 bed, full-service pediatric ED that includes two critical care and isolation rooms for children with infectious diseases.
  • Patient rooms equipped with a computer, making it easier for physicians to enter orders, look up medical histories, and provide the highest level of patient care and safety.
  • Two fully equipped x-ray rooms and two state-of-the-art dedicated CT scanners within the ED.
  • New 7,000 square foot ambulance bay with upgraded provisions for disaster planning, decontamination showers, and mass casualty management.

Emergency Services Transfer Center

Our dedicated transfer center team stands ready to help you access our services and connect to a Duke specialist at Duke University, Duke Regional, or Duke Raleigh Hospital in minutes. We work with you and your patients to ensure the highest quality of care at the location that best meets each patient’s needs. 

The Duke Transfer Center is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week by calling 919-681-3440. 

How the Transfer Center helps you

When you call the Duke Transfer Center, highly qualified registered nurses will assist you and triage your request by:

  • Facilitating the necessary physician-to-physician consult to discuss patient condition and coordinate hand-off of care.
  • Helping to coordinate insurance approval and transport services to ensure your patients are able to get rapid access to the care they need.
  • Keeping you up-to-date on the status of your transfer request.

Information we need

For the most efficient service, please provide the following information:

  • Requester’s name and contact number.
  • Referring physician’s name, phone number, and facility.
  • Patient’s name, date of birth, gender, diagnosis, insurance information, type of transport needed, level of care needed (for example, ICU), and medical specialty being requested (cardiology, medicine, pediatrics, etc.)
Duke Children's logo

A comprehensive description of all of our pediatric emergency medicine clinical services and locations is available on Duke Children's.