Pediatrics Services

The department of pediatrics and child health overtakes both teaching and clinical activities. There are 17 general pediatrics and child health specialists, one pediatric haemato-oncologist and one pediatric cardiologist staffs. These staffs do both teaching activities and patients’ care. Under department there are undergraduate medical students, pediatrics and child health residents and fellowship program of pediatrics haemato-oncology

      The services being provided in the outpatient department are follow up of patient with known chronic diseases, new patient evaluation and treatment, well child care clinic, vaccination provision and pediatric HIV clinic. Around 5,810 new patient per year or 482 new patient per month will visit the outpatient department of pediatrics. In the chronic follow up clinic an average of 5,632 patient/year or 470 patient/month are seen. About 1,680 children or 140 children per month visits the Growth monitoring and well child clinic. In the well child care clinic, there are nutrition experts and interns who monitor the growth of children and provision of anticipatory guidance. The pediatrics ART clinic is visited by 3,177 clients /year or 265 clients/month. In addition, Vaccination is being for about 15,645 children per year or 1,304 children per month in the vaccination provision clinic.  A total of 31,944 patients and clients pass through the outpatient department of pediatrics per year. The staffs of pediatric ART provide service like ART initiations for newly diagnosed patients, regimen changes, psychosocial supports and mentoring of nearby tributary health facilities. The ART care providers are trained comprehensive BSc. Nurses, TCID and HIV medicine professional, interns, pediatrics and child health residents and pediatricians.

In each site of the pediatrics cares there are assigned/dedicated pediatrics and child health specialists. He /she control and monitor all activities undertaken in the outpatient department.  The chronic follow up activities are given by both the residents and pediatricians side by side. There are assigned specialists in each day for each type of chronic diseases. The schedule of the chronic follow up is Monday-neonates, malnutrition and respiratory cases, Tuesday- Diabetes mellites cases, Wednesday-cardiac cases, Thursday-nephrology and rheumatology cases and Friday-neurology cases. Especially for the diabetes patient free medication and glucose monitoring machine (glucometer) with its measuring strips are being given.

         The pediatrics in patient activities encompass the emergency triaging and treatment, emergency admission service, pediatric ICU admission and care, the under-five and above-five ward admission activities, the cardiac patient admission and care, oncology care, treatment and nutritional stabilization and rehabilitation units and neonatal admission ward and ICU. 

The role of ETAT is to stratify cases according to their severity signs. Once the emergency signs are identified, immediate evaluation and treatment will be given at the site with no delay. It gives 4-6hr observation. Then, those who need no admission will be send to home after stabilization and correction of the emergency conditions and those who need admission will be admitted to the emergency ward. Those who don’t have emergency sign will be distributed to the outpatient department for further evaluation.

       Pediatrics emergency ward has 29 beds and there are 20 comprehensive nurses, 2 emergency BSc. Nurses and one diploma nurses that work with interns, residents and one pediatrician dedicated to the ward. An average of 3,047 emergency patients are being admitted and treated over a year. The emergency ward provides admissions until the patient relived from the emergency life threatening conditions. Then patients will be distributed to respective wards to complete their treatment. There are emergency patient monitoring on each side of beds that monitor condition of patients. Emergency pediatric procedures are being done like intraosseous line, lumbar puncture, thoracentesis, peritoneal fluid aspiration and splenic aspirations.

The main ward is used for admission of patient who visits the outpatient department and in need of admission and stabilized patient from the emergency ward. It has 47 beds including the cardiac unit. The ward activities are controlled by pediatricians and head nurses. There are 19 comprehensive BSc. Nurses. 10 interns, 9 residents and 4 general pediatricians assigned to the ward.  The cardiac ward has around 12 beds that are dedicated for cardiac patients. The cardiac ward is controlled by the pediatric cardiologist. There is three-time ward round over a week and daily visit of patient by the cardiologist. Echocardiography and electrocardiography machines are available and patient in need of echocardiography and ECG, the cardiologist will do it and he is available over 24 hours.  Over all 1,975 are being admitted and treated over a year period in the main ward.

Pediatrics ICU service is given for those patients who need intensive care. Pediatric ICU has 5 beds with five mechanical ventilator machines. The machines are monitored by biomedical engineers and health care professional are trained and continuous professional development are being given for them in order to improve patient outcome. The machine is directly connected to the oxygen in plant. There are two general pediatrician that control the ward activities and oversees the nurses, interns and resident. It has also a monitoring machines available to each patient. On average 215 patient have been admitted and treated in the PICU over a year period.

Nutritional stabilizations and rehabilitations have been given for more than 314 severe acute malnutrition children per year. It has its own ward and health care team as that of the wards. In addition to stabilization and rehabilitation, nutritional counseling is being given to mothers and other care providers.

Currently the department of pediatrics gives pediatric haemato-oncology services for more than 897 oncologic patients for last one year. The service is being provided by the pediatric haemato-oncologist. The ward has 35 beds with 4 isolation rooms which are used for infection susceptible neutropenic patients. Most of the pediatric haemato-oncology cases including hemophiliacs are being treated and palliative care is being given by the haemato-oncologist, trained nurses and haemato-oncology fellows. It serves for more than 30million people. Moreover, Bone marrow aspiration and fine needle aspiration from intra-abdominal mass are being done under sedation. In order to improve the care, the department started pediatric haemato-oncology subspecialty fellowship training in January, 2021. In the near future the cancer treatment service will include radiotherapy in addition to the chemotherapy provision.

The neonatal care is started from the labor ward. To improve the outcome, there is clear communication between the labor ward and the neonatal ward team. Once the neonate is brought to the neonatal ward, the first evaluation will be done by the medical interns, residents as well as by pediatrician.