Emergency Care Connect

Lurie Children’s Emergency Care Connect is our emergency department-based telemedicine program that provides virtual support for clinicians caring for acutely ill and injured children. Emergency Care Connect streamlines care and improves subspecialty access for pediatric patients presenting to non-pediatric emergency departments.

Emergency Care Connect providers are available on-demand, 24/7 for assistance with pediatric trauma, medical emergencies, suspected abuse or maltreatment, and other urgent care concerns.  

"By providing ED telemedicine consultations, we hope to reduce unnecessary transfers and keep kids close to home, while offering the expertise of our specialists," says Dana Schinasi, MD, Medical Director for the telemedicine programs at Lurie Children’s.

Leading Through Partnership

In 2018, Lurie Children’s became a recipient of a nationally competitive United States Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Services Distant Learning and Telemedicine grant. This funding expands the reach of our Emergency Care Connect program to support an additional 20 critical access hospitals and rural communities throughout Illinois.

Through telemedicine, the program will address disparate access to care for some of our nation’s most vulnerable children, including those who are low-income, rural, underserved, and, in some cases, victims of abuse.