To the kids, she’s Doctor Rebecca. She wears casual clothes with her hair pulled back in an easy style. She smiles a lot and is at once energetic and calming. The only thing that might give away that she’s a doctor is that she moves around with a stethoscope at her neck. Rebecca Reamy, M.D., does not look like a typical doctor. And she’s not. Her casual attire and easy-going manner are all about making children comfortable.” Putting a child at ease is an important part of completing an examination,” she says. Dr. Reamy is playful and funny. In no time at all, she gets wary 2-year-old Morgan laughing and playing with “Doctor Rebecca’s” stethoscope. But there’s much more to Dr. Reamy than her style. She possesses a level of training accomplished by very few in the country. After earning her medical degree, she spent six more years studying and training to be a pediatric emergency physician. That means that the patients she cares for are children and children only. How does that make a difference?
“There’s almost no similarity between the medical care of adults and the medical care of children,” says Dr. Reamy, medical director of the MUSC Children’s Hospital Emergency Department. “Children’s bones break differently, fevers mean something very different in children than adults. And the difference between a fever in a newborn and a fever in a teenager is likewise vast.” ‘There’s almost no similarity between the medical care of adults and the medical care of children.’ – Rebecca Reamy, M.D. Most emergency departments provide general care for patients from infants to the elderly. That means anyone of any age will be seen there. Only about 25 percent of all patients who enter a community hospital emergency department are children. Physicians and nurses must be able to shift from one type of patient to another. The Emergency Department at MUSC Children’s Hospital is 100 percent about children. The ready knowledge the team brings to any equation, the team’s currency with proper dosages, new drugs, immunization schedules, and working with instruments and equipment especially designed for children translates to better care. “Because my sole focus is children, I have a comfort level making a diagnosis that often doesn’t require subjecting a child to a battery of uncomfortable tests and X-rays,” says Dr. Reamy. “The tests can be unnerving for a child. They also add time and expense. Being able to spare a child an unnecessary test can be a tremendous relief for all involved.” But if a child requires serious intervention, MUSC Children’s Hospital has every pediatric service and subspecialty there is. | 
