What are you waiting for? A study of resident physician-parent communication in a pediatric emergency department.

Study Objective: This study measures the degree to which parents of patients, in the course of evaluation and treatment in a pediatric emergency department (ED), could report what they were waiting for.

Methods: Brief in-person interviews were conducted with parents of nonemergency patients during an ED visit. After the patient had been seen by a resident physician and evaluation and treatment were in progress, parents were asked to report what they were waiting for.

An infant with tachypnea.

The purpose of this case report is to illustrate the diagnostic difficulties of congestive heart failure in an infant. When presenting to the emergency department, these patients are often evaluated for sepsis, congenital heart disease, metabolic disorders, and myocarditis. We report a case of a 3(1/2)-month-old male who presented to the pediatric emergency department with congestive heart failure.