A program that shortens time in the emergency department and wins rave reviews from families was honored by the Florida Hospital Association at their annual conference. The Boo-Boo Care Team is made up of specially-trained paramedics who stitch up children's wounds in the Nemours Children's Hospital Emergency Department. The team won the Innovation in Patient Care award, which recognizes new approaches to care delivery.

The paramedics are trained for six months on how to repair lacerations, treat nail-bed injuries and remove foreign bodies in soft tissue. The team always operates under the supervision of pediatric emergency medicine physicians.

Since the program was launched in the summer of 2014, the total length of stay for patients needing a suture has been reduced a full hour per patient. In addition, the average time each child has to wait to receive topical anesthetic has decreased by 30 minutes. Families have provided an average satisfaction score of 4.8 on a scale of 5.