Feedback on the COVID-19 crisis in a pediatric hospital in Île-de-France

Abstract

Children were relatively spared by the COVID-19 health crisis during spring 2020, with few hospitalizations in pediatric hospitals. For that reason, one of the main challenges for pediatric hospitals was to provide staff support to adult hospitals with health workers mainly trained in pediatrics. In our hospital, we created dedicated units for children with COVID-19, identified the specificities of children with COVID-19 and more specifically of children with “Kawasaki like” or PIMS-TS (Pediatric Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome temporally associated with COVID-19), created an adult intensive care unit at the peak of the outbreak to increase adult resuscitation capacity in our region and pooled our staff screening center with the other adult hospitals. Finally, we have sent more than 140 health workers to other adult hospitals. This support was provided thanks to the close links established between our pediatric hospital crisis unit and those from the other adult hospitals included in our Hospital Group. We report here a feedback from a pediatric hospital during the COVID-19 crisis in the region of Ile-de-France.