Emergency care

We understand that nothing is more upsetting than when your child needs emergency care. To help provide you peace of mind during a stressful situation, we offer a dedicated pediatric emergency room just for children.

Equipment, procedures, treatments and even medications can be drastically different for young patients than for adults, so our pediatric emergency room offers:

• Access to doctors, subspecialists and nurses specially trained in caring for children
• A pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), should hospitalization be necessary
• Dedicated pediatric rooms staffed 24/7 by board-certified, pediatric emergency medicine physicians and pediatricians

Our pediatric emergency department treats thousands of children of all ages each year. We aim to provide an atmosphere that is calming and comforting.

We understand it can be hard to know what type of medical care you need and whether you should go to the emergency room or wait for your doctor's office to open.

We want you to feel secure about your choice for care, which is why we've created a list of symptoms that may indicate you need to visit the emergency room:

• Back pain, when it is unbearable or accompanied by fever, numbness, weakness, confusion, slurred speech, vision loss or loss of control over bladder or bowels
• Broken bones, when the pain is severe or there is a visible deformity
• Chest pain, when it is crushing or squeezing and accompanied by other heart attack symptoms, such as shortness of breath or nausea
• Concussion, when you have lost consciousness, even briefly, or experience amnesia, vomiting, slurred speech or a seizure
• Flu, when symptoms become severe, such as having trouble breathing, vomiting uncontrollably or becoming dehydrated
• Side pain, when it is severe and occurs in the lower right stomach, side or back or is accompanied by fever, nausea, diarrhea or blood in the urine
• Stomach pain, when accompanied by a hard or tender stomach, nausea, shortness of breath, fever or irregular heartbeat
• Trouble breathing, when breathing stops, is noisy or high-pitched and comes with pain in the chest or severe shortness of breath

If you are unsure if your symptoms require an emergency room visit, you can speak to a nurse 24/7 by calling our Consult-A-Nurse® team at (844) 706-8773.

When you get to the emergency room, one of our triage nurses will assess your symptoms and vital signs. Next, a registration clerk will collect your insurance card (if available) and other information.

We medically screen, evaluate and stabilize you — whether or not you have insurance or are able to pay.

If you have a severe, life-threatening illness or injury, you will be treated first. Everyone else will be treated in the order they arrive.

Before discharge, we encourage you to ask our emergency care teams any questions you have. It is also useful for you to keep all of your paperwork, discharge information and medicines or prescriptions together after you leave the emergency room.

After discharge, our emergency department staff will reach out to your primary care provider to ensure they are updated on your care.

When coming to the emergency room, we recommend you bring:

• A list of medicines you currently take
• A list of known allergies
• Copies of results from recent medical tests, if available
• Personal care preferences and restrictions
• A responsible adult or phone number for someone to contact

When it comes to emergency care, our goal is to continually work toward enhancing the care you receive while reducing our wait times. This ensures you get the care you need when you need it most.

Our wait times are updated every 30 minutes and are available on our website.

To find the wait times of the HCA Florida emergency room nearest to you, check the top of our website or text “ER” to 32222.

Note: Message and data rates may apply. Emergency room wait times are approximate and provided for informational purposes only.