Pediatric Disaster Preparedness Quality Collaborative

In September 2019, the U.S. HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response (ASPR) funded two Pediatric Disaster Care Centers of Excellence (COE); and charged them with improving disaster response capabilities for children in the United States. Over the past year, the EIIC has partnered with the Eastern Great Lakes Pediatric Centers of Excellence to conduct a pediatric disaster preparedness quality collaborative focused on enhancing the ability of participating hospitals to receive and treat children in response to a disaster.

A total of 89 participants at 39 hospitals across 15 states, 1 US territory and 1 Canadian providence are participating. The image on the next page depicts a breakdown noted by the red circles indicating the number of participating hospitals in each state, territory or providence. There are a wide range of hospital types in the collaborative with a significant number of community hospitals.

Participants are engaged in key areas of pediatric disaster preparedness, patient tracking and family reunification. Importantly, this collaborative incorporates modules on building partnerships within a region to include establishing connections with local chapters of our national partners; the American Academy of Pediatrics, Emergency Nurses Association, the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American College of Surgeons. This model of establishing relationships between our collaborative participants and local chapters of our national partners is something that will continue with future collaboratives. We have relied heavily on our partners to help drive participant recruitment and provide resources and national subject matter experts to help support the educational content. Be sure to check out the EIIC website for more details on this exciting work!