Division of Emergency Medicine

In this pursuit, second, third, and fourth-year medical students; pediatric residents of the first, second, and third year, along with family practice residents of the second and third year, receive their pediatric emergency medicine education in the Emergency Department of the Bristol Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital. The Department also instructs residents from the Family Practice program of the Somerset Medical Center and hosts various electives for medical students, emergency medical service students, and residents from other programs throughout the north east.

Resident educational activities include supervision of PGY1, PGY2, and PGY3 residents during all facets of their rotations in the Pediatric Emergency Department. Furthermore, third-year pediatric residents undertake elective rotations in the Pediatric Emergency Department and are allowed to expand their emergency medicine education.

The division acts as the primary educational site for pediatric emergency medicine to several young learners. Young learners from the Department of Pediatrics, the Department of General Emergency Medicine, the Department of Family Medicine, and Physician Assistant Students from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School are hosted to educational activities in our Pediatric Emergency Department.

Along with young learners from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, family practice residents from the Somerset Medical Center as well as medical students and residents from other institutions elect to be educated by our division.

The division holds three meetings each month:

First Thursday of each month – Attendings Conference
Third Thursday of each month – General Business Conference
Fourth Thursday of each month – Literature Review

As a Level 1 Trauma Center and the state’s only Pediatric Level II trauma center, the division is charged with caring for the most severely injured and sick children, as well as those with the most minor problems.

The division orchestrates the teaching program for the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Department of Pediatrics, the Department of Emergency Medicine, and the Department of Family Medicine. First--, second-, and third-year pediatric residents rotate through the emergency department. Educational opportunities are also afforded to residents from other training programs, physician assistant students, nursing students, medical students, and all those who choose to do electives with our division.

The division is intimately involved in research and academic pursuits in pediatric emergency medicine. 

The division has a well-established section in Express Care Medicine in which board-certified general pediatricians are available during the busiest times to treat patients with a wide range of minor problems, expediting their care, and significantly decreasing their time spent in the emergency department. These specially trained general pediatricians augment the division’s academic and educational pursuits and are intimately involved in all continuing medical education processes. 

The division also affords pediatricians in Central Jersey an Office Preparedness Course. This is a course that incorporates mock code scenarios in physician offices to access and help in the preparation of significant critical care problems that could take place in an office setting. After the course, there is a feedback session in which equipment and physician knowledge is updated and referred to the practice.

• Diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of illnesses and injuries that present to the emergency department from birth through 21 years of age.
• A Level 2 pediatric trauma center
• Child life specialists
• Moderate sedation services offered 24 hours a day
• Enhanced radiological techniques including fluoroscopy done in the emergency department
• Point-of-care ultrasound services performed by pediatric emergency medicine specialists
• Coordination of emergency medical services for children
• Coordination of pediatric emergency preparedness for the hospital
• Office preparedness courses
• Sports medicine evaluation programs
• Telemedicine services to non-pediatric emergency departments

• Leva, EG, Petrova, A, Fieramosca, B, “Adherence to Clinical Practice Guidelines in Evaluation of Simple Febrile Seizures in Emergency Departments” has been accepted to the SAEM Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting on February 22, 2014 hosted at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA.
• Leva, EG, “Comparison of Clinical Management of Young Children With Simple Febrile Seizures in Association with Physicians’ Training”   was accepted to the Pediatric Academic Societies and Asian Society for Pediatric Research Joint Meeting, Vancouver, BC, Canada, May 6, 2014 Abstract #755075
• Leva, EG, “Pediatricians’ Expectation Regarding Advance Training in Pediatric Emergency Medicine for Physicians Providing Care to Pediatric Patients in the Emergency Department”  was accepted to the Pediatric Academic Societies and Asian Society for Pediatric Research Joint Meeting, Vancouver, BC, Canada, May 5, 2014 Abstract #756162
• Leva, EG, “Comparison of Clinical Management of Young Children With Simple Febrile Seizures in Association with Physicians’ Training”   was accepted to the Eastern Society for Pediatric Research Meeting,
• Philadelphia, PA. March 23, 2104   Abstract #755075
• Ernest Leva, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics  “Adherence To Clinical Practice Guidelines In Evaluation Of Simple Febrile Seizures In The Emergency Department”  Department of Pediatrics, Research Day, June 11, 2013
• VanArsdale D, Leva E, Petrova A. General Pediatrician’s Expectations Regarding Advanced Training In Pediatric Emergency Medicine For Physicians Providing Care To Pediatric Patients In The Emergency Department.  Poster presentation Department of Pediatrics, Research Day, June 11, 2013
• VanArsdale D, Leva E, Petrova A. Parental Expectations Regarding Specialty Training In Pediatric Emergency Medicine For Physicians Practicing In A Pediatric Emergency Setting.  Poster presentation Department of Pediatrics, Research Day, June 11, 2013

Miele NF, Patel NR, Grieco RD, Leva EG.  Direct Bedding, Bedside Registration and Patient Pooling to Improve Pediatric Emergency Department Length of Stay.  Academic Emergency Medicine. 2012:19:S119

Christina Camacho MD, Ernest G. Leva, MD, FAAP, A Rare Presentation in a Not-So-Rare Disease Henoch-Schonlein Purpura Presenting with Repeated Seizures,  Pediatric Emergency Care 2014,30: 424-426