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.

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.

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.