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Pediatric disaster preparedness and response and the nation's children's hospitals

Kristin C Lyle1, Jerrod Milton2, Daniel Fagbuyi3

  • 1Disaster Medical Director and Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, Arkansas Children's Hospital, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas.

American Journal of Disaster Medicine
|August 28, 2015
PubMed

Insights

Pediatric hospitals have varied disaster preparedness plans, with most having a plan but differing in scope and drills. Collaboration with non-medical facilities serving children needs improvement.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Emergency Medicine
  • Disaster Preparedness
  • Public Health Policy

Background:

  • Children constitute 30% of the US population, making them a significant demographic in disaster events.
  • Tertiary care pediatric hospitals are crucial for managing critically injured children during mass casualty incidents.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To assess the disaster response readiness of member hospitals within the Children's Hospital Association (CHA).
  • To understand how children's hospitals prepare for and respond to mass casualty events.
  • To identify areas where CHA can support hospital preparedness efforts.

Main Methods:

  • A survey was developed by the Disaster Response Task Force in October 2011.
  • The survey was emailed to emergency managers at CHA member hospitals, designed for a <15-minute completion time.
  • The survey assessed disaster preparedness, self-perceived readiness, and support needs.

Main Results:

  • A 36% response rate was achieved from 179 distributed surveys.
  • 70% of responding hospitals have established disaster response plans.
  • Hospitals reported higher confidence in responding to local events than large-scale regional, national, or international incidents.
  • Limited interaction was noted between children's hospitals and non-medical facilities with high child concentrations (e.g., schools, daycares).

Conclusions:

  • Significant variability exists in disaster preparedness and response strategies among children's hospitals.
  • While most hospitals have disaster plans and conduct drills, the scale and scope of these activities differ considerably.
  • Enhanced collaboration with child-focused community facilities is needed.
Abstract

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