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Kerry Chamberlain, PhD, MPH – Outreach, Evaluation and Exercise Liaison – Bureau of EMS, Trauma and Preparedness
On June 18, 2019, the Bureau of EMS, Trauma and Preparedness (BETP) held a conference regarding pediatric patient readiness. Approximately 25% of the United State population and just over 21% of the population in Michigan is under 18 years old. While improvements have been made since the beginning of public health preparedness program in the US, there is still more that needs to be done for pediatric patient preparedness. Pediatric patients require special care during emergencies. Needs can vary widely whether the child is an infant or a teenager. Children are different from adults in terms of their physiology and emotional and developmental understanding. Another layer of need is their dependence on others. Compounding the issue of dependence on others is if a child is separated from their family and caregivers during an emergency. These needs make children more vulnerable in disasters which means public health and healthcare partners need to be ready.
The conference, Pediatric Patients: Bridging the Readiness Gap, focused on increasing pediatric readiness in the health care and public health community in Michigan. Over 300 public health, hospital and EMS partners attended the conference in Lansing and online. Pediatric experts from around the country shared their expertise throughout the day. The conference began with Dr. Sarita Chung from Boston Children’s Hospital discussing current issues in family reunification following emergencies and the REUNITE system. The REUNITE system uses a photograph from the family and the system uses facial features to match with children in the database. The goal is to quickly reunite families after a disaster. The pilot test of the REUNITE system showed that families were more quickly able to identify their children. Dr. Matthew Denenberg from Helen DeVos Children Center and the District 1 Regional Healthcare Coalition Coordinator Matthew Price discussed the use of the EMResource the Michigan hospital bed tracking system and introducing increased functionality to reporting pediatric resources such as bed availability during an emergency. Dr. Denenberg focused on children’s hospitals statewide and using a conference call to specifically discuss pediatric needs during high volume disease outbreaks and disasters. The conference call information sharing could preempt the use of EMResource. Matthew Price showed the future of EMResource which had boards and more specific bed availability statistics for pediatrics. Dr. Stewart Wang, the Michigan State Burn Coordinating Center, Medical Director discussed how to handle a surge of pediatric burn patients and the need for expertise in burn care specifically, pediatrics in an emergencies. He proposes a strike team that is specific to a surge of burn patients that can provide expertise to an overwhelmed hospital system in an emergency. Kathy Wahl, Director of the Division of EMS and Trauma at MDHHS updated the audience on the EMS for Children program and the future of the program, partnering with disaster preparedness partners throughout the state. She presented a proposed hospital and EMS standard system for caring for children. Finally, Dr. Marie Lozon from the University of Michigan presented on behavioral health needs of children in emergencies. Dr. Lozon shared that information regarding the emergency and death of other during and after the event should be adapted to the mindset of the child. She also recommended that psychosocial support specifically for children be available following emergencies for support.
According to Amber Pitts, the Healthcare Preparedness Program Manager at BETP, “There is a national initiative this year to focus on pediatrics. This conference provided a great way to revitalize the importance of pediatric readiness in all arenas of healthcare. The speakers at this conference provided the groundwork to continue building on and enhancing existing pediatric related projects. Bridging gaps between healthcare providers is crucial in delivering care to this vulnerable population. The Bureau of EMS, Trauma, and Preparedness is working with a group of subject matter experts on a pediatric medical surge plan, another group is developing a pediatric readiness program for emergency departments and a recognition program for those hospitals that meet identified standards. These are just a few of the important initiatives BETP workgroups are leading in an effort to provide quality care at all hospitals during a disaster or public health emergency”.
The presentations from this conference are available on the MI-TRAIN Pediatric Patients: Bridging the Readiness Gap home page. For more information on the research and program information for some of the speakers:
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Sarita Chung (Chung, Mario Christoudias, Darrell, Ziniel, & Kalish, 2012)
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Stewart Wang (Abir, Davis, Sankar, Wong, & Wang, 2013)
- Kathy Wahl
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Marie Lozon (Lozon & Bradin, 2018)
References
Abir, M., Davis, M. M., Sankar, P., Wong, A. C., & Wang, S. C. (2013). Design of a model to predict surge capacity bottlenecks for burn mass casualties at a large academic medical center. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, 28(1), 23–32. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049023X12001513
Chung, S., Mario Christoudias, C., Darrell, T., Ziniel, S. I., & Kalish, L. A. (2012). A novel image-based tool to reunite children with their families after disasters. Academic Emergency Medicine, 19(11), 1227–1234. https://doi.org/10.1111/acem.12013
Disaster Preparedness Advisory Council, & Committee on Pediatric Emergency Medicine. (2015). Ensuring the Health of Children in Disasters. PEDIATRICS, 136(5), e1407–e1417. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2015-3112
Dziuban, E., Peacock, G, & Frogel, M., (2017). A child's health is the public's health: Progress and gaps in addressing pediatric needs in public health emergencies. American Journal of Public Health, 107, S134-S137. doi:10.2105/AJPH2017.303950
Lozon, M. M., & Bradin, S. (2018). Pediatric disaster preparedness. Pediatric Clinics of North America, 65(6), 1205–1220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pcl.2018.07.015
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