Project Partners

The National Pediatric Readiness Project brings together the federal Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC) Program, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), and the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA), all of whom have a vested interest in working collaboratively to improve pediatric emergency care. The EMSC Program is also utilizing the expertise of its two resource centers -- the the EMSC Innovation and Improvement Center (EIIC) and the National EMSC Data Analysis Resource Center (NEDARC) -- as well as its State Partnership grantees to implement this project.

The National Pediatric Readiness Project would also like to thank PEMSoft for giving away a full year's individual PEMSoft subscription to every emergency department representative who completed the 2013 assessment.

What Is the Role of EMSC?

EMSC   NEDARC   EIIC   State EMSC Grantees  

The National Pediatric Readiness Project not only falls within the EMSC Program’s goals, but also offers the opportunity to set the proper foundation for the delivery of emergency care to all children when they arrive at an emergency department (ED). To help implement this national initiative, the federal EMSC Program will utilize its two resource centers -- the National EMSC Data Analysis Resource (NEDARC) and the EMSC Innovation and Improvement Center (EIIC) -- and its State Partnership grantees.

NEDARC will work with states to develop accurate lists of participating EDs, host and administer the national assessment through a secure web-based system, and maintain a data warehouse of all assessment data. Additionally, NEDARC will provide EDs with immediate feedback through the Pediatric Readiness Score and an online report (gap analysis) of key areas within the assessment, as well as conduct a national analysis once data are collected for all EDs.

The EIIC will work with representatives from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), and the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) to develop a primary National Pediatric Readiness Project message and to create all project materials, including the Toolkit and the Pediatric Readiness website. It will also serve as a clearinghouse for storing all articles and other information related to the project.

National Pediatric Readiness State Teams comprised of EMSC State Partnership (SP) grantee program managers and state representatives of the AAP, ACEP, and ENA, will work with EDs in their state to answer questions regarding the assessment and to encourage its completion. SP program managers in particular are uniquely qualified to assist in this project due to their experience working with EDs and partnering with state level agencies across the state to improve the emergency care of children.

What is the Role of Organizational Partners?

National organizations, such as the America Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), and the Emergency Nurse Association (ENA) play a vital role in the success of this project. Specifically, these organizations have agreed to:

  • help disseminate information about the project to their membership,
  • participate in the development of quality improvement resources to help emergency departments (EDs) provide effective emergency care to children, and
  • identify state representatives or “champions” who will work with EMSC State Partnership managers to:
    • educate fellow members about the project;
    • encourage their colleagues (i.e., ED nurse and physician leaders) to complete the assessment and access the online resources;
    • write about the National Pediatric Readiness Project in their chapter newsletter or online listserv; and
  • implement organizational projects to facilitate pediatric ED readiness in all hospital emergency departments (see below). For more information about the organizational projects, watch the webinar Collaborating for Success: Pediatric Readiness Next Steps
AAP   ACEP   ENA  

AAP Develops Pediatric Quality Improvement Collaborative; Adds New SIG for National Pediatric Readiness Project

Recognizing the gaps in pediatric quality improvement in many hospitals, AAP will focus its efforts on developing a Pediatric Quality Improvement Collaborative for sharing lessons, translating research into practice, discovering new knowledge, and facilitating rapid quality gap closure. Participants will include hospital clinicians, family advocates, and professional stakeholder representatives. It is anticipated that quality improvement interventions will lead to identification of best practices to improve the care of children, payment reform models, and additional conversations with The Joint Commission.

This initiative will be rolled out to AAP’s Section on Emergency Medicine (SOEM) in October 2015 and during a national quality improvement conference tentatively scheduled for Fall 2016. The conference will be recorded so it can be accessed at later dates.

In addition, AAP will continue to hold education sessions with numerous stakeholders, including The Joint Commission. The Academy also added a new SOEM Special Interest Group (SIG) for the National Pediatric Readiness Project. This SIG will take the lead in all Peds Ready activities. Furthermore, AAP’s Committee on Pediatric Emergency Medicine is developing pediatric “prehospital” readiness guidelines and revising the 2009 Guidelines for Care of Children in the Emergency Department.

ACEP Calls on State Chapters to Develop Pediatric Emergency Care Networks

ACEP is engaged in assuring a system of pediatric emergency care exists in every community that reflects pediatric readiness and the ability to initially treat and stabilize all pediatric emergencies. The national organization will work with state ACEP chapters who will serve as conduits to encourage every ED to be pediatric ready.

State chapters will work with organizational partners, such as state representatives from AAP, ENA, and EMSC, and many other state and local partners, to establish Pediatric Emergency Care Networks in each state. These networks will be modeled after successful programs already established in other states, such as New Jersey, Arizona, California, Illinois, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania.

The goals of each network are to (1) increase EDs awareness of the current Guidelines for the Care of Children in the Emergency Department and other resources available through the EMSC and Pediatric Readiness websites; (2) improve access to optimal emergency care for all children; (3) improve the quality of pediatric emergency care and outcomes across the pediatric populations; (4) establish a quality improvement process and outcome measures; and (5) establish a central repository and support network for distribution of evidence-based resources.

ENA Establishes State Champion Teams to Improve Pediatric Readiness in Every State

ENA’s Pediatric Readiness (Peds Ready) State Champion Team project has kicked off in five pilot states: Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania.

The state champion team concept was first utilized in 2013 during the assessment phase of the National Pediatric Readiness Project, after learning that several EMSC State Partnership managers had difficulty communicating with hospitals about the importance of participating in the Peds Ready national assessment. Through its national Pediatric Committee, ENA mobilized its state chapter members to help open doors and facilitate dialogue between the state managers and hospital leadership. With the pilot project, ENA is taking this collaboration a step further, with the goal to broaden the state champion team concept to other states during Peds Ready phase two activities.

In November, 2015, Peds Ready stakeholders, as well as ENA state chapter representatives and EMSC State Partnership managers, convened in Chicago to review the pilot project objectives and goals, and determined next steps to operationalize it.

Each state champion team in the pilot will be collaboratively led by an ENA state chapter representative and the EMSC state partnership manager. Representatives from each state’s AAP and ACEP chapters will round out the core team. Additional team members will vary by state, and may include representatives from rural health, trauma, the state hospital association, and the EMS community, as well as a family representative.

The state pilot teams have three goals to achieve within the next year: (1) identify the roles and responsibilities of the team, including job descriptions for each team member; (2) assemble resources promoting the state champion team concept to share with hospitals, including a letter of support from ENA, AAP and ACEP; and (3) identify and track metrics for improvement based on the 2013 Peds Ready assessment to report measures of success.

A steering committee consisting of organization representatives from ENA, AAP, ACEP, HRSA-EMSC, and the EMSC NRC will oversee the project. Lessons learned from the Peds Ready state champion teams pilot will be used to expand the team concept nationwide.