In this section
Emergency Department and Trauma Center
If your child is experiencing a medical emergency, call 911 for help now.
How to find us
Our Emergency Department is located in the Skywalk Building on our Children’s Wisconsin Milwaukee Campus at:
8915 W. Connell Court, Milwaukee, WI 53226
You can get to our Emergency Department on our Milwaukee Campus by turning south onto 92nd Street from Watertown Plank Road. After that, turn left onto Connell Ct. and follow the signs to our Emergency Department.
- As of October 2023: New Children’s Wisconsin ambulance route
Please note: The Children's Wisconsin Emergency Department and Trauma Center has moved! In October 2023, the EDTC moved to the Skywalk Building near the front of the Children’s Wisconsin Milwaukee Hospital. To learn more about the new Skywalk Building, please visit the Building for Kids page.
Parking
For our families and visitors:
- Parking and valet service is free.
- Parking is available in the lot near the Skywalk Building entrance.
- Additional parking is available in the visitor parking structure located north of our Milwaukee Hospital and Clinics Building. The skywalk on Level 3 connects the parking structure to the Skywalk Building
- Learn more about coming to our Milwaukee Campus
Visitor guidelines
- Stay up to date on our most recent visitor guidelines.
Emergency care made for kids
When emergencies happen, Children’s Wisconsin is here to provide your child with the best and safest care — 24/7. From simple cuts and broken bones to complicated, life-threatening injuries, we care for more injured kids than any other hospital in the state.
Because our Emergency Department and Trauma Center only treats kids and teens, we are able to offer a level of pediatric expertise and a child-friendly environment you won’t find at any other hospital in southeastern Wisconsin.
Pediatric experts
If your child needs emergency care, there’s no better place to be than Children’s Wisconsin. They’ll have immediate access to pediatric experts in more than 70 specialties. Our highly skilled, compassionate team works together to ensure that your child receives the right care for their physical, emotional and developmental needs:
- Board-certified pediatric physicians have additional training in pediatrics and pediatric emergency medicine.
- Child life specialists ease anxiety by distracting your child during exams, lab work and procedures such as stitches.
- Nurses have specialized experience caring for kids in emergency situations.
- Lab and X-ray specialists ensure your family quickly gets the right answers while minimizing radiation and avoiding unnecessary tests.
ED or urgent care?
Wondering if your child really needs to go the Emergency Department? Check the list on the bottom of the Urgent Care page for guidance. Children's Wisconsin offers the area’s only urgent care walk-in clinics made just for kids. Our urgent care locations are open nights and weekends when regular doctors’ offices are closed. We also offer urgent care video visits as a convenient option.Video: Why choose Children's Wisconsin for emergency care
Level I pediatric trauma center
Car crashes. Water accidents. Falls. Fire. Violence. When the worst happens, our Level I pediatric Trauma Center is ready to swiftly respond to a child’s immediate crisis. The American College of Surgeons only grants the Level I designation to hospitals that provide the highest quality of care and meet certain criteria.
Led by a pediatric trauma surgeon, our trauma team includes pediatric physicians, nurses and other staff from the Emergency Department, critical care, operating room and transport team. The transport team, which brings more than 1,000 critically ill or injured kids to Children’s Wisconsin by ambulance, helicopter and fixed-wing plane every year, provides ICU-level care before patients even arrive. Children’s Wisconsin also has a surgeon on call 24/7 to consult with care providers at other hospitals.
Only the highest level of care
The trauma medical director, an advanced practice nurse and quality improvement nurse monitor care of every injured patient. They discuss all the critical issues with the care team and refer patients to a trauma physician or a trauma committee made up of experts from multiple specialties to ensure the best care.
Minimizing radiation exposure
If your child requires imaging tests like X-rays or a CT scan, we make sure that they’re exposed to the smallest amount of radiation possible. We have the latest technology and equipment to offer the lowest doses of radiation — three times less than the standard doses at adult hospitals. If you want your child treated at Children’s, ask your local hospital to transfer your child before any non-urgent diagnostic care is provided. Learn more about our Imaging Department.
Avoiding the operating room when we can
We never want to put your child through unnecessary surgery. In Children’s EDTC, 95% of spleen injuries, 99% of liver injuries and 100% of renal injuries are treated successfully without surgery.
Mental and behavioral health support
We care about your child’s entire well-being. We screen for acute stress related to injury and other emotional-behavioral issues, including suicide risk and drug/alcohol use, and offer mental/behavioral health support as needed. For kids who arrive at our EDTC in the midst of a mental health crisis, our mental health emergency response team is available 24/7 to provide immediate and coordinated assessment, referral and treatment, including post-discharge care for as long as needed.
Preventing future injuries
Our team works closely with the Safety Center on prevention efforts. Working collaboratively, we provide injury prevention messaging and safety products to help keep Wisconsin’s children safe and healthy.
We also help reduce the cycle of violent crimes through Project Ujima, which supports youth victims of violence who come to Children’s EDTC.
MCW affiliation
Many of our specialists are faculty members of the Medical College of Wisconsin. Learn why this matters.