Hundreds of thousands of pediatric patients require some level of emergency
care annually, and significant barriers limit access to appropriate servic
es for large numbers of children. The American Academy of Pediatrics has a
strong commitment to identify barriers to access to emergency care, work to
surmount these obstacles, and encourage through education increased levels
of emergency care available to all children. It is also crucial to involve
and incorporate the child's medical home into emergency care, both during
acute presentation when the medical home is identified and by assisting in
locating a medical home for follow-up when none previously exists.