Steven Krug, MD Division Head, Emergency Medicine

The faculty of the Division of Emergency Medicine are responsible for the provision of patient care, teaching and research within the emergency department (ED) and urgent care (UC) programs of Children’s Memorial Hospital (CMH).  

As of September 2008, the Division consists of 18 sub-board eligible or certified pediatric emergency physicians and 9 pediatricians.  Over 61,500 children are cared for each year in the CMH ED and UC.  Children’s Memorial is a Level I Pediatric Trauma Center and an Associate Hospital within the Chicago Emergency Medical Services (EMS) system.  Susan Fuchs, MD serves as the Associate Division Head and as the EMS medical director. Sally Reynolds, MD serves as the Medical Director for the CMH ED and Yiannis Katsogridakis, MD, MPH is the Associate Medical Director.  Division faculty also support Children’s Memorial affiliated pediatric emergency departments at Central DuPage Hospital (CDH) and Northwest Community Hospital.  This CDH pediatric ED provides care for about 15,000 children each year. 

The CMH Emergency Medicine program supports clinical instruction for medical students from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, for our Categorical Pediatric Residency Program as well as Emergency Medicine residents from two Chicago programs and Family Practice residents from six Chicago programs.   Advanced Practice Nurses and paramedic trainees also receive instruction in our ED.   In addition to clinical and didactic teaching at CMH, division faculty are actively engaged in outreach education provided locally in Chicago, nationally, and internationally.  Division faculty are active instructors in the PALS, APLS, PEPP, and ATLS programs.  Dr. Fuchs has served as editor and author for a number of these national educational certificate programs.

The Division has a well-established pediatric emergency medicine sub-specialty fellowship with a total of six fellows in the three-year training program.  Drs. Elizabeth Powell and Jennifer Trainor serve as the fellowship program directors.  

The Division supports or is involved in a number of areas of research and academic interest, including:

• the KidSTAR pediatric simulation program - an on-site multi-disciplinary training program at CMH led by Drs. Mark Adler, Walter Eppich and Jennifer Trainor, all faculty within our Division. 
• the Injury Prevention and Research Center (IPRC) - The IPRC is a hospital wide initiative which is directed Dr. Karen Sheehan, a faculty member in our division.  The center is a multidisciplinary endeavor which strives to reduce childhood intentional and unintentional injury through applying best practices and developing and studying new interventions.
• International health - a new program for resident training at CMH, led by Dr. Lina Abujamra.
• Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) - Children’s Memorial Hospital is one of 22 hospitals that are part of the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA) funded research collaborative.  PECARN is the first such program to focus on questions requiring the participation of large populations unavailable at any one center.   Dr. Elizabeth Powell is the prinicipal investigator for PECARN at CMH.
• Child Health Data Lab (CDHL)- Dr. Sheehan also serves as the Medical Director of Child Health Data Lab.   The CDHL is a repository of current and archival information on child and adolescent health in Chicago and Illinois. In addition, CHDL conducts epidemiologic research in childhood and adolescent injury and health in Illinois and Chicago.

Division faculty are actively engaged in a variety of advocacy efforts at local, state and federal levels in support of children and pediatric care.  Dr. Sheehan serves as the Associate Chair for Advocacy within the Department of Pediatrics.