Overall Peds Ready Scores

In 2013, more than 4,100 emergency departments (ED) across the nation voluntarilyparticipated in an assessment to determine their readiness to care for a sick or injured child. It is exciting to see that so many hospitals in this country (83% of the approximately 5,000 hospitals nationwide) participated in the assessment and indicated their widespread interest in improving care for children.

The majority of hospitals that participated in the assessment were hospitals that see the lowest volume of pediatric patients per year. Low volume hospitals can see as few as two pediatric patients per day, whereas higher volume hospitals in urban settings can see as many as 200 children per day.

Each hospital that completed the assessment -- which was based on the Joint Policy Statement: Guidelines for the Care of Children in the Emergency Department (published in Pediatrics, October 2009 and Annals of Emergency Medicine, October) -- received immediate feedback in the form of a readiness score and a gap analysis report. The "Pediatric Readiness Score" is based on a scale of 0-100.

The average pediatric readiness score for all participating hospitals is 69 (n = 4,146). Hospitals with high patient volume (more than 10,000 pediatric patients per year; n = 561) have the highest readiness score: 84. Hospitals seeing between 5,000 and 9,999 pediatric patients per year (n = 708) have a 74 average pediatric readiness score, and hospitals seeing between 1,800 and 4,999 pediatric patients per year (n = 1,248) have an average pediatric readiness score of 70.

The average pediatric readiness score for low volume hospitals (less than 1,800 pediatric patients per year; n = 1,629) is 62.