top of page
A dynamic team dedicated to a single MISSION: to advance the practice of pediatric emergency medicine across north Georgia and southeastern Tennessee.
WE
ARE
PEMA
About
About Us
While most pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) practices are based within academic affiliated hospitals, PEMA is unique. We are a physician-owned private practice that has built a decades-long track record of success.
"At PEMA, we believe in collaboration and exceeding expectations. Our team of clinicians and clinical scientists share a passion for patient care. We try to reward that, through a culture of flexibility as well as reimbursement opportunities that put our team members in the top 5th percentile for our subspecialty."
James Beiter, MD
Chief Operating Officer at PEMA
(PEMA'te since 1999)
Our VISION
net over the next 20 years, for one of the fastest growing regions in the United States.
Our vision is to be a unique PEM practice. One that plays a central role in strengthening the integrity of the pediatric healthcare safety
Our values and
recipe for success:
Founded in 1984, PEMA has grown quite a bit. Now, in 2023, we find ourselves partnering with three healthcare systems.
Clinical Care & Collaboration
PEMA (2022):
over 230,000 ED visits
"As doctors at PEMA, we believe it's important to take an active role in emergency department and physician leadership, at the hospital-level. In the spirit of collaboration, being engaged with every level of the hospital administrative process allows us to participate in how we improve quality standards for our patients while ensuring that our team members aren't subjected to bedside demands that are unsustainable."
Thuy Bui, MD
Medical Director, CHOA at Scottish Rite ED
(PEMA'te since 2003)
Services
Career support
We all went into PEM for different reasons. Whether you want to focus on family outside of work, or pursue various levels of clinical leadership and/or research, we support that too, while trying to help our colleagues be more informed about long-term financial planning.
"When I was about to finish PEM fellowship, I felt that I was destined for academia. However, I was also interested in flexibility that allowed me to be in more control of how I chose to balance my passion for patient care, research, teaching and child advocacy, with the reality of starting a family. Fortunately, the PEMA family is amazing. I sit down at each shift and know that I can lean on my PEMA’tes for support…I can not imagine a better place to work.”
Sarah Lazarus, DO
(PEMA'te since 2015)
Research & Education
Expanding the practice of pediatric emergency medicine within the region we serve makes research and education a core part of our formula for success.
Carlos Delgado, MD
Research director at PEMA
(PEMA'te since 2009?)
"Rather than be an expectation, at PEMA we foster an atmosphere where research is supported for those who have a passion for it. Our practice environment creates incredible opportunity for clinical scientists to explore interesting questions and ideas, even if this interest starts 5-10 years after they leave training. This approach has worked well for us. In addition to recent peer-reviewed publications we've participated in, we are an official "PECARN research node", within Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite Emergency Department."
"Expanding the practice of high quality evidenced-based emergency department care for children doesn't just apply to the patients we see. By providing oversight and guidance to tomorrow's pediatricians and emergency medicine clinicians, we're achieving our mission to expand the practice of high quality care throughout the communities we serve. We're proud to say that we've grown a remarkable education division within PEMA, and now engage with five ACGME programs, providing rich immersive clinical experiences and research opportunities for trainees (?)."
Mona Kulkarnia, MD
Education director at PEMA
(PEMA'te since 2005)
Sometimes, big problems require innovative solutions. We have a track record of success in this arena, with our eyes set on innovation for the future as well to tackle major problems faced by children in the post-COVID world.
Innovation
Problem (2004):
Twenty years ago, the high demand for safe, effective pediatric sedation services outside of the operative environment created a challenge for our hospital partners. Seeing an opportunity to collaborate with pediatric anesthesiologists, critical care physicians, and our PEM community at the local and national level, we launched PSS (Pediatric Sedations Services, LLC).
David Banks, MD
Director, Pediatric Sedation Service Line at CHOA
(PEMA'te since 1992)
"In addition to becoming founding members of the Society for Pediatric Sedation, we developed a state-of-the-art data collection model that has helped to evolve and disseminate a higher, evidenced-based, standard for the practice of pediatric sedation for children everywhere. With over 7,000 sedations per year, we're proud to say that not only has PSS, LLC grown into one of the busiest non-anesthesiologist based pediatric sedation services in the U.S., our experience and data has helped colleagues at pediatric tertiary care centers around the country safely expand access to sedation services for children in their own communities".
It's been known for a while that the ebb and flow of volumes in the pediatric ED are predominantly driven by respiratory viruses. Then, COVID-19 happened. In the aftermath of the pandemic, seasonal fluctuations of non-SARS-CoV-2 respiratory viruses has been associated with sometimes crippling surges in the demand for outpatient and inpatient pediatric hospital resources around the globe. This leads us to ask: Is there a way for us to better understand (and predict) how our hospital-level volumes are affected by the transmission of respiratory viruses in the communities we serve?
Problem (2023):
"For almost a decade, we've been following and learning from longitudinal fluctuations in viral-associated upper and lower respiratory illness that drive pediatric ED visits and hospitalizations. What's emerging is the fact that the fluctuation of our clinical volumes follows a cyclical pattern that is less random than we realized. With recent grant support from Children's Healthcare of Atlanta's 1998 Society, we’re developing a tool (PhenoTracker) that merges real-time disease data with corresponding population-level viral prevalence. The result will be an automated system for better detection, reporting, and forecasting of pediatric inpatient and outpatient demand. In its pre-automated format, our longitudinal model is already helping our hospital partners be better informed regarding ongoing and impending shifts in demand for outpatient and inpatient hospital resources."
Sujit Sharma, MD
(PEMA'te since 2001)
Are you interested in staying up to date on how respiratory viruses are impacting hospital volumes, with a little slice of humor? Sign up here for the weekly newsletter!
Real Seasonal Viruses of Atlanta (RSVOA)
Join our team
Physicians
Mid-level providers
bottom of page