Our Partners in Pediatrics program looks to establish collaborative activities between pre-hospital providers, emergency department clinicians, and the families and caregivers of children. The development and implementation of these programs are aimed at reducing the negative impacts of illness and injury encountered during an emergency and improving the care available and provided to children when time is critical, and stress is high.
The Pediatric Emergency Care Coordinator (PECC) plays an integral role in linking EMS agencies and ED’s through their champion role with education, clinical competency, and a collaborative approach to care.
Additional partners in pediatric care include groups who support children with special needs or who require complex care, supplemental first responders such as police and fire, support services in the hospital who supplement emergency department clinicians in the delivery of emergent care, and many other individuals or groups who are tasked with assuring the safe care of children.
Facility readiness refers to an emergency department’s ability to be already to care for any child who arrives to their facility seeking care for an illness or injury. Children are not little adults. They have unique characteristics that may require specific care in emergencies, but not all children have access to specialized pediatric care. Nationally, 80% of children receive emergency care in general EDs. General EDs primarily treat adults and may not be well-prepared for children because of low pediatric patient volume.
Since 2013, Pennsylvania EMS Agencies have been participating in a pediatric readiness program which offered agencies of any size the ability to participate at a level they were able to meet. Each level built on the previous level’s requirements and added additional capabilities and capacity to care for children across specific areas of application; pediatric specific equipment, background checks, education, community outreach, and safe transport. As the focus of pediatric readiness in the prehospital world developed, so did public expectations and science to support where efforts would be most productive. Today, Pennsylvania EMS has a new readiness program, Prepared for Pediatrics EMS, where agencies can apply to one of three levels of recognition with an emphasis on pediatric coordination, expanded equipment, supplies, and medications, enhanced education and competency assessments, a more engaged community connections, performance improvement initiatives, and a continued focus on the safe transport of pediatric patients.
A PECC is a designated individual or group who coordinates pediatric emergency care and who need not be dedicated solely to this role; it can be an individual or group already in place who assumes this role as part of their existing duties. For EMS agencies, the individual or group may be a member of the EMS agency, or work at a community or regional level and serve more than one agency.
