About

Our team

The National Pediatric Readiness Project or NPRP is an initiative to empower all emergency departments (EDs) to provide effective emergency care to children. The project is led by the federally funded Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC) Program in partnership with:

Nearly all of the EMSC Program’s arms play a role in the NPRP.

EMSC Innovation and Improvement Center: coordinates with AAP, ACEP, and ENA on all project materials, particularly resources for improvement, such as the toolkit and checklist.
EMSC Data Center: works with EMSC State Partnership Programs to host and administer the national assessment and to maintain all assessment data.
EMSC State Partnership Program: provide accurate contact lists of EDs in their state or territory and facilitate and encourage the participation of those EDs in all improvement opportunities, from assessment to resources.
EMSC Targeted Issues Grants: may use data from the national assessment as a basis for further research and/or to identify gaps for developing and testing innovative improvement strategies.

The NPRP is guided by a Steering Committee representing stakeholders across the partner organizations, federal entities, and other key groups.

View the NPRP Steering Committee

Our history

2003 2009 2012 2013 2015 2018 2021

Under a grant from the EMSC Program, a steering committee conducted an assessment of all U.S. hospitals to determine their compliance with the 2001 American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)/American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) “Care of Children in the Emergency Department: Guidelines for Preparedness.”

Results revealed that most hospitals were unaware of the national guidelines and few had all of the essential equipment and care policies listed in the recommended guidelines.

AAP, ACEP, and the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) release a joint policy statement “Guidelines for Care of Children in the Emergency Department” – endorsed by 22 national organizations – to replace the 2001 guidelines.

Spring 2012: Marianne Gausche-Hill, MD, completes a statewide survey of all hospitals within California to assess their capability to treat children in their ED based on the 2009 guidelines. 300 of the 335 hospitals in the state participate in the survey. The average score for all participating EDs is 71.4 (based on a 100-point scale).

September 2012: The EMSC Program launches the National Pediatric Readiness Project (NPRP), in partnership with AAP, ACEP, and ENA, to expand on the work done in California.

The NPRP launches its first national assessment based on the 2009 guidelines. More than 4,000 EDs participate, yielding a response rate of more than 82%. In late 2013, EMSC, AAP, ACEP, and ENA begin to develop strategies and resources to engage EDs in QI activities, including the NPRP toolkit.

Results from the first assessment are published in JAMA Pediatrics, indicating an average pediatric readiness score of 69 for participating EDs (on a scale of 0-100, 100 being the highest score).

The 2009 joint policy statement “Guidelines for Care of Children in the Emergency Department” is updated by the APP, ACP, and ENA to “Pediatric Readiness in the Emergency Department”.

The NPRP launches its second national assessment with 3,647 EDs responding.

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