Clinical Integration of Pharmacologic and Non-pharmacologic Techniques to Enhance Pediatric Minor Procedures Urgent message: Integration of various techniques when performing minor procedures on children can enhance clinical care for patients and families while bringing within reach administrative and financial goals. Emory Petrack, MD, FAAP, FACEP, Lisa S. Perry, CCLS, and Kristine Vehar, RN s the practice of urgent care medicine continues to grow, urgent care centers grapple with several impor- tant issues, among them the needs to provide optimal clinical care, reduce medical le- gal risk, and deliver excellence in customer service; the latter is especially true when centers are located in competitive markets. Although pediatric care in the urgent care setting has tra- ditionally received relatively lit- tle emphasis, it is an area of fo- cus whose time has come; spotlighting child and family- centered care helps urgent care centers enhance clinical care for children and families while also bringing within reach administrative and financial goals. A plethora of ways exists for enhancing care for fami- lies and children in urgent care settings. This article fo- A w w w. j u c m . c o m cuses on but one: improving care for children presenting in need of minor procedures, such as blood draws, IV place- ments, local wound care, and suturing. While a variety of pharma- cologic and non-pharmaco- logic techniques for enhanc- ing such pediatric procedures are described in this paper, suc- cess in achieving broad care, satisfaction, and business goals is dependent upon the integra- tion of techniques. In other words, each tech- nique alone presents certain benefits to urgent care centers and the children and families they treat, but it is the sum of techniques used together that creates synergy and paints a uniquely positive picture families remember and share with others in the community. Figure 1, which shows a 4-year-old boy undergoing © Images.com/Corbis/James Yang Introduction JUCM T h e J o u r n a l o f U r g e n t C a r e M e d i c i n e | Fe b r u a r y 2 0 0 8 11