A digest of EMSC Program News and Activities
Issue #42 | Oct. 17, 2019
Public Comment on Nomenclature of the EMS Profession Draft White Paper Open through October 25. 2019This year, representatives from stakeholder and membership organizations gathered to discuss how the EMS profession describes itself and its activities. The organizations were convened …
Read MoreChildren represent 25 percent of the U.S. population and face specialized medical issues due to their unique developmental and physiologic characteristics. While pediatric hospitals provide excellent care for children on a day-to-day basis, a regionally-based pediatric disaster care capability is …
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Sam Vance, MHA, LP has been part of the EIIC since December 2017. However, Sam has a much deeper and significant history with the Emergency Services for Children program. His first experience with the program began in St. Louis, Missouri …
Read More..It is vital that all EMSC SP Program Managers complete the verification before the data collection launch
From January to March 2020, theEMSC Performance Measure data collection will launch for all State Partnership (SP) EMSC grantees. The National EMSC Data Analysis Resource Center (NEDARC) and SP Program Managers from 58 states, U.S. territories and the freely associated states are ramping up. They aim to reach about 18,000 EMS agencies.
The focus will be reassessment of the status increased number of EMS agencies with Prehospital Pediatric Emergency Care Coordinators and improvements in the process of EMS personnel skills-check on the use of pediatric equipment by state/territory.
Beginning in January, SP Program Managers will have 3 months to complete data collection for Performance Measures 02 and 03 from EMS agencies. Managers are currently verifying lists of EMS agencies to be surveyed in the NEDARC Contact List Management System. It is vital that all EMSC SP Program Managers complete the verification before the data collection launch. NEDARC Technical Assistance Liaisons continue to work with managers in preparation for data collection.
Customizable messaging resources in the form of storyboards are available. Designed to assist SP managers get out the word to EMS agency managers about the survey. Contact your NEDARC Technical Assistance Liaison to access high quality and custom images from NEDARC’s Spark workshop for messaging to EMS agencies about the survey or if any questions arise.
EMSC was present at the recent annual Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) national meeting in Austin TX. The ENA provided a booth for EMSC to emphasize their support for the NPRP assessment.
The booth was staffed by two EMSC resource centers, NEDARC (Dr. Lenora Olson and Chris Hoffman) and the EIIC (Diana Fendya and Dr. Kate Remick), and they had support from Patrice Christensen (California EMSC), Cyndy Wright-Johnson (Maryland EMSC), Sally Snow (ENA/EMSC) and Patty Howard (ENA). The primary message at the booth was promotion of the 2020 pediatric readiness survey and education for attendees on pediatric readiness. Visitors were provided with information about the survey, the rationale behind the national push to improve emergency care for children and were given resources to allow nurses to assist in preparing their and other facilities for quality pediatric emergency care.
Many booth visitors were previously unaware of the 2013 assessment but all agreed that every emergency department should to be ready to provide care for kids. Visitors were provided with a thumb drive containing a copy of the 2020 assessment and the pediatric readiness guidelines. Additional information on EMSC and Quality Improvement White paper (a performance gap identified in 2013) were included. All electronic materials distributed can be found here. Over 600 thumb drive with NPRP and EMSC materials were distributed and the NPRP Facebook page has gained over 225 additional ‘likes’ since the conference. Other materials are expected to be shipped out to State Partnerships in October.
Booth visitors included many ENS members as well as 2019 ENA President Dr. Patricia Kunz Howard; 2020 ENA President-elect Mike Hastings. The ENA, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Emergency Physicians and the National Association of State EMS Officials are active partners in the EIIC.
Diana Fendya manning the EMSC Booth at the ENA meeting
.In 2013, through a collaborative effort with national partners, the National Pediatric Readiness Project (NPRP) was created with the goal of ensuring high quality emergency care for all children. Efforts began with quality improvement programs and resource development to improve pediatric readiness in hospital emergency departments nationwide. As this initial effort did not address prehospital pediatric readiness, there are currently numerous activities focused on pediatric readiness in the prehospital setting. These include an anticipated joint policy statement, as well as the recent Prehospital Pediatric Care Coordinator Learning Collaborative.
With those initiatives underway, and others in the planning stages, the EIIC and partnering organizations convened the Prehospital Pediatric Readiness Steering Committee to help guide and plan next steps for pediatric readiness in the prehospital setting. This includes identifying gaps and priority areas of focus and coordinating complimentary public relations activities among our national partners, so as to support and not duplicate efforts.
The steering committee consists of representatives from 15 national EMS organizations and the federal agencies of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) EMS for Children Program, National Highway Traffic Administration (NHTSA) Office of EMS, and the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) Emergency Care Coordination Center (ECCC). The first in-person meeting was held September 5-6, 2019 in Rockville, MD where work began on the development of a strategic plan for moving forward. The plan includes goals and objectives, timeline, implementation and deliverables such as the Prehospital Pediatric Readiness Toolkit. Future in-person meetings are scheduled for February and July 2020 at HRSA Headquarters in Rockville, MD. Progress of the steering committee’s work will be published in future issues of the EMSC Pulse.
NEDARC and other EMSC entities will use a centralized deployment method to contact ED nurse managers to collect data for the National Pediatric Readiness Project (NPRP), a national assessment of emergency department pediatric care. Item revisions have been tested with ED nurse managers. The assessment is currently undergoing internal software testing at NEDARC. A gap report is under development based on the feedback from the NPRP steering committee.
Messaging and marketing plan for the 2020 NPRP Assessment will be available soon The plan includes messaging for NPRP partner newsletters and specific messaging for social media. Be sure to help us spread the word by liking and sharing the National Pediatric Readiness Project page on Facebook.
The site will be temporarily closed to prepare the 2020 assessment in alignment with the current Guidelines for "Pediatric Readiness in the Emergency Department” on December 31, 2019. You may return to the site in June 2020 to enter data and participate in the largest initiative to improve the readiness of emergency departments to care for children in the United States! If you have any questions about the website closing, contact your NEDARC TA.
A new Microsoft PowerPoint template has been created to assist EMSC Program Managers to inform stakeholders about all EMSC performance measures and their significance. This is great tool to use for Advisory Board meetings and other important EMS Stake Holder meetings. Download here.
The AAP released 2 new AAP Voices Blogs in September 2019.
The first blog titled, “Disasters' Rising Toll Makes Family Preparedness Key”, was authored by Council on Disaster Preparedness and Recovery Executive Committee member Dele Davies, MD, MS, MHCM, FAAP. Dr. Davies shares resources and tips on how pediatricians can become involved in disaster preparedness planning, both for their institutions and for families in their practice. Dr. Davies also highlights questions that can be asked to initiate conversations with families to help them prepare for disasters.
The second blog titled, “Time to Step Up Efforts to Protect Children from Climate Change” was authored by Jerome A Paulson, MD, FAAP. Dr. Paulson notes the importance of educating patients and their families about the impact of climate change on their health.
Oregon’s EMSC activities aimed at preparing families with Children and Youth with Special Health Needs (CYSHCN) for visits to the emergency department were recently featured in the Association of Maternal Child Health Programs newsletter. Find the article about the efforts of Rachel Ford and FAN rep, Tamara Bakewell here. A special toolkit was developed.
The Red Cross is also tackling preparedness for people with disabilities. See their resource page here and a special pamphlet.
Notice Number: NOT-HD-19-022 was released on October 9, 2019 focusing on Research on Emergency Medical Services for Children. This Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) invites research applications that focuses on three specific areas of research on emergency medical services for children which were understudied in earlier versions of this program. These are:
1) Clinical and translational research which includes building the evidence base for clinical aspects of emergencies and emergency care and assuring pediatric safety and quality in emergency care.
2) Methodology which includes improving data collection, patient outcomes and outcome measures in pediatric emergency care, and system organization, configuration, and operation to provide optimal care.
3) Evaluation which includes costs and cost-effectiveness, diagnostic tests, procedures, and services provided by medical, nursing, social work, first responders, ancillary personnel and others involved in EMSC care, and the evaluation of systems of EMSC care.
For more information please see the announcement on the web.
Celebrate 35 years of the EMSC program with this customizable image. Contained within PowerPoint, the image can be changed to feature you state name alongside the blue EMSC bear. Want a copy of the template and instructions for its use? Be sure to email your NEDARC Technical Assistance Liaison today!
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