Practical Tips for Your NPRP Gap Report

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Resource Overview

  • Step-by-step guide for using your NPRP Gap Report to strengthen Pediatric Readiness.
  • Helps prioritize gaps, track progress, and guide safer care for children.

How to Use This Resource

  • Review overall and section scores, compare nationally, and identify gaps.
  • Categorize gaps: easy wins, moderate effort, high-impact.
  • Prioritize critical gaps, build the right team, and assign owners and timelines.
  • Track progress, share updates with staff and leadership, and sustain improvements.

✅ A roadmap to improve Pediatric Readiness

✅ A tool to prioritize safety-critical gaps

❌ Not a measure of staff competency

❌ Not a performance evaluation

❌ Not expected to be perfect

Review:

  • Overall Pediatric Readiness Score
    • Compare to previous scores, if available
    • Compare to the national average
  • Domain Strengths and Weaknesses
    • Which sections or domains have close to full points and are strengths?
    • Which sections domains have few points and multiple “Not Met” items?

Tip and Considerations:

  • Scoring 88 and over is associated with lower mortality risk.
  • But no score is a “bad” score. Establishing a baseline is important, and even incremental improvements can help save lives.
  • A perfect score also does not mean perfect outcomes. It simply means you are giving your pediatric patients the best possible chance at survival.
  • Easy Wins (Low Effort / High Yield): gaps that are quick to address or obtain, such as individual equipment or supply items.
  • Moderate Effort Improvements: gaps that may not be quick fixes but do not require huge investment, such as updating policies or protocols.
  • High-Impact: gaps that are crucial to address but may require planning and obtaining buy-in and take a longer time to work toward, such as the three key drivers of Pediatric Readiness: appointing nurse and physician pediatric emergency care coordinators (PECCs); having a pediatric quality improvement plan; and staffing with board-certified emergency medicine or pediatric emergency medicine physicians.

Prioritize gaps that:

  • Are key drivers of Pediatric Readiness
  • Affect critically ill or injured children
  • Occur frequently in your ED
  • Are required for verification or compliance

Core Team

  • Nurse PECC
  • Physician PECC
  • ED educator
  • ED leadership

Additional Support as Needed

  • Trauma
  • Quality and safety team
  • Pharmacy
  • Respiratory therapy
  • Behavioral health
  • Emergency management
  • Supply chain / IT
  • Transport
  • Risk management

For each priority gap:

  • Assign an owner (often a PECC)
  • Set a timeline
  • Identify success measures
  • Share progress with staff and leadership
  • Retake the assessment to determine progress

Remember:

  • Small, consistent improvements = safer care for children.
Back to Assess and Review: Measure Your ED’s Readiness and Understand Your Results