Emergency Department nurse Kristin Patterson tends to Santana Rivera, 13 months.

The NorthBay Medical Center Emergency Department is seeking designation as an Emergency Department Approved for Pediatrics (EDAP). It would be the first in Solano County to achieve this new standard of care for children. Hospitals in other areas of the state consider it a best practice to earn this special certification.

NorthBay VacaValley Hospital would later seek the same designation. NorthBay’s two emergency departments receive more than 10,000 pediatric visits per year.

“NorthBay Medical Center is the only facility in northern Solano County with a full-spectrum pediatric program—around-the-clock pediatric hospitalists, in-patient services, mother-baby care and neonatal intensive care,” explained Deborah Sugiyama, president of NorthBay Healthcare Group. “With the significant investment in services we have made, this new initiative ensures we will meet the highest standards of care for younger patients.”

Ronald Dieckmann, M.D., M.P.H., a national expert on emergency pediatrics, is assisting NorthBay as it refines its current procedures and develops new protocols. Dr. Dieckmann was chief of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital for 25 years and is professor emeritus of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco.

NorthBay’s two hospitals will continue to partner with pediatric trauma centers at UC Davis Medical Center and Children’s Hospital Oakland, where the most seriously injured and ill children receive care.