Pediatric meningitis is a high-risk diagnosis for practitioners and nurses who provide acute or episodic care to febrile children. Medical errors may lead to profound disability or death. In addition, lawsuits in this arena are exceptionally costly, and there is no indication that recent changes in the malpractice climate will bring the situation under control. Although meningitis has declined significantly since the introduction of the Hemophilus influenza vaccine in the late 1980s, bacterial meningitis continues to occur. This changing landscape of the epidemiology of infectious disease in children is an important consideration in the evaluation and management of the febrile child. It is critical for practitioners to promptly diagnose and treat children with meningitis or serious bacterial infection in order to improve patient care and reduce the potential for litigation.
In this activity, we examine the common fact patterns in pediatric fever-related lawsuits and adverse outcomes, present and discuss a number of cases to highlight some of the most common reasons the diagnosis of meningitis is delayed, missed, or inappropriately managed, and provide key risk and documentation guidelines and evidence-based risk management recommendations. After completing this activity, practitioners should be able to: recognize the signs and symptoms of meningitis in febrile pediatric patients in order to make an early diagnosis and expedite treatment; assess the indications for lumbar puncture in febrile pediatric patients in order to make an early diagnosis and expedite treatment; and identify the indications for corticosteroid treatment in pediatric patients with meningitis.
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- Addiction Medicine
- Cardiovascular Disease
- Clinical Informatics
- Clinician Wellness & Burnout
- Communication & Shared Decision-Making
- Critical Care Medicine
- Diagnostic Radiology
- Emergency Medicine
- Family Medicine
- General & Adult Psychiatry
- General Internal Medicine
- General Operative Anesthesia
- General Pediatrics
- General Surgery
- Geriatric Medicine
- Health Equity & Inclusion
- Hospital Medicine
- Infectious Disease
- Maternal-Fetal Medicine
- Medical Genetics & Genomics
- Medical Leadership & Administration
- Neurology
- Neurosurgery
- Obstetrics & Gynecology
- Orthopaedic Surgery
- Orthopaedic Trauma
- Patient Safety & Quality Improvement
- Pediatric Emergency Medicine
- Pediatric Infectious Diseases
- Pediatric Urology
- Practice Management & Ethics
- Surgical Critical Care
- Trauma Surgery
- Urology
- Vascular Neurology
- Vascular Surgery
- Anesthesiology
- Cardio-Vascular
- Cross-Specialty
- Emergency & Critical Care
- Infectious Disease
- Internal Medicine
- Medical Subspecialties
- Neurology
- Ob/Gyn
- Orthopedics
- Pediatrics
- Primary care
- Psychiatry
- Radiology
- Surgery
- Urology
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- Case-based learning
- Credit · Up to 2 credits
- Fee · varies
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ReleasedOct 24, 2025
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Last day to claim creditOct 24, 2028 2 years left
