By JASMINE GOMEZ 

Vital Stats – 30: Percentage of non-emergency patients who visit the emergency room. (Source: American Journal of Managed Care)

The Pediatric Emergency Department at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM) treats about 60,000 patients a year, about 150 to 200 a day, making it a goal for the hospital to decrease the stress and fear that overcome many parents and children during a visit to the emergency room.

To ease some of the common fears children and parents often feel when entering an emergency room, Montefiore’s Wakefield ED and the Department of Community and Population Health will host a Teddy Bear Hospital on May 9. There, children can learn how to be comfortable within a healthcare setting while also getting tips on how to stay as healthy as possible. To do that, they’ll need the help of a teddy bear.

Children 12 and under and their parents or guardians are invited to bring in their “injured” teddy bears or stuffed animals for a simulation of would be treatment were the bear an actual patient at the pediatric emergency department. Teddy bear “patients” will encounter the different stages of an emergency room visit which include triage, a meeting with a doctor who will assess and treat the teddy bear’s condition, as well as a consultation session where the kids will learn how to care for their bear after discharge.

“A primary goal of the event is to educate children and families about what happens in the emergency room, to decrease fear of coming to the emergency room when the child encounters a trauma,” said Dr. Nicole Hollingsworth, EdD, Assistant Vice President of Community and Population Health at Montefiore Medical Center. Hollingsworth finds that children who have attended the Teddy Bear Hospital exhibit bravery in place of fear should they go back to the ER. This is due to their familiarity with an emergency room visit following the event.

Another aim of the event is to provide parents with information about preventive care and the use of primary care services before a situation becomes drastic. This can include taking preventive action against asthma to ward off an asthma attack. A study on emergency room visits shows that 30 percent of visits to the ER turn out to be non-emergency, meaning a visit to a primary care physician could have been utilized instead. “It’s good to engage with healthcare providers before you’re sick because prevention is important,” explained Hollingsworth.

Attendance at Montefiore’s annual Teddy Bear Hospital is set to increase this year, as organizers of the event expect at least 400 children to show, compared to the 300 who attended last year. Children can also tour an ambulance and the Wakefield Campus Emergency Department and interact with costumed characters such as McGruff, the crime safety dog.

The Teddy Bear Clinic runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The program will present information in both English and Spanish. The first 400 children will receive a backpack filled with a teddy bear, information on how to keep fit, Teddy Graham cookies, a water bottle, and a Berenstein’s Bears book about a visit to the ER.

Note: Montefiore’s Wakefield ED is located at 600 East 233rd St.