Alabama — State Partnership

Project Overview

Our goals are based on the needs of Alabama’s children as related to the Federal EMSC Program performance measures. The Alabama Center for Health Statistics states that Alabama’s population was 4,858,979 in 2015. Twenty-five percent of the population is under the age of 18 which is the target population for the EMSC State Partnership Program as defined by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). With 96 acute care and 4 critical access hospitals in the state, Alabama has 3 hospitals that currently serve the pediatric population: Children’s Hospital of Alabama in Birmingham; Huntsville East in Huntsville, and USA Children’s and Women’s Hospital in Mobile. Including these hospitals, there are 5 pediatric intensive care units, 43 pediatric units, and 17 neonatal intensive care units throughout the state. Alabama also has a Trauma and Health System (ATHS) that now covers 100 percent of the population of the state of Alabama. The ATHS is a designation system for adult hospitals with some pediatric components. It is the hopes of the EMSC program that it will soon be a designation system for pediatric hospitals too.
Currently, the Alabama EMSC Program’s focus is to receive funding to continue the previously established child-focused programs. The program goals are to: achieve performance measures and be granted data collection exemption on ones the program has currently achieved; finalize the Sensory Friendly Initiative pilot project and implement the initiative statewide; develop an EMS recognition program; and continue educating prehospital providers about the importance of the EMSC program, its performance measures, and the necessity for compliance.

Institution

Department of Public Health, Office of EMS

Regions

Disseminations