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Children's ER visits down at some MN hospitals amid COVID-19 fears

Doctors are urging parents not to delay or avoid seeking emergency care for their kids because of COVID-19 concerns.

MINNEAPOLIS — As hospitals stay busy amid a COVID-19 surge, emergency department visits are down at children's hospitals. You would think that's good news but not necessarily.

"It's very similar to what happened early on March, April during the lockdowns because I think people were really concerned about going anywhere," recalled Dr. Kari Schneider, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Masonic Children's Hospital. 

The hospital's emergency department has seen a 30% drop in visits compared to what they usually see this time of year. 

Dr. Schneider said there are a couple possible reasons for the decline. Kids may not be getting sick as often because of social distancing, mask wearing and not being in the classroom with other students. 

But doctors are also concerned they're not seeing the same volumes because people are afraid to visit the ER. 

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"I feel safer at work than I do at the grocery store, personally," Dr. Schneider said. "We've always — even pre-pandemic — been very concerned with infection prevention control, keeping ourselves and our patients and their families safe. But that's all been very, very beefed up because of the pandemic." 

In the spring, M Health Fairview put out an ad campaign in several languages to help spread the word on not avoiding the ER. 

Dr. Schneider wanted to point out that a pediatric emergency department is different than an adult one. 

"Picturing a crazy, overwhelmed, overrun place with no rooms, no beds," Dr. Schneider said. "I just really want to get that out there that that is not the case right now in our pediatric hospital." 

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Visits to the emergency departments at Children's Minnesota's two hospitals are also down 30-35%. 

Dr. Robert Sicoli, Emergency Department Medical Director, noted the same potential reasons as Masonic for the decline, adding, "...the prevailing feeling is that many parents have a misconception that their children are at an increased risk of getting COVID by coming to the hospital. However, this is not true given the steps Children's Minnesota has taken to protect against infection."

Not only are emergency room visits down, but kids are also skipping wellness checkups and vaccinations. 

"We're worried that vaccine rates are going down. They're not where they should be and that's very, very concerning to us about what could be down the pipeline even when this pandemic is more under control," Dr. Schneider said. 

Dr. Schneider has also seen kids getting care much later than they should for things like ear infections or appendicitis. 

"Anecdotally, we've seen those things and we're worried that it's because people have been trying to prolong, put off going to the emergency department or seeking care," Dr. Schneider said. 

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Dr. Schneider is also encouraging parents to let their kids do things like ride a bike or go sledding. 

"I think they're afraid that they would get injured," Dr. Schneider said. "That's so unfortunate because kids really now more than ever need to be outside moving their bodies." 

While ER visits by children may be down at some hospitals, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently published new research that found that emergency department visits related to mental health increased 24% for children ages 5-11 and 31% for children ages 12-17 from April through October, compared to the same time period last year. 

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