Citation

Pintea M, Dahl Grove D. Disaster Med. Public Health Prep. 2024; 18: e28.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2024, Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Publisher Cambridge University Press)

DOI

10.1017/dmp.2024.27

PMID

38372074

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: A significant number of disaster and emergency victims are children. Yet, many hospitals are ill-prepared to care for these patients during disasters, as identified by the National Pediatric Readiness Project's survey of hospital pediatric disaster plans. The Region V for Kids Center of Excellence created a self-assessment tool to help regions identify vulnerabilities and ways to enhance care for vulnerable children and families.

METHODS: Region V for Kids identified 9 key domains (eg, infrastructures and support mechanisms) that are important to safeguard children's and families' care during disasters. A self-assessment tool to assess these domains was distributed to 24 regional health care coalitions along with a 9-question usefulness survey. The self-assessment tool addressed 3 of the original domains, which have regional or national open-source databases and datapoints that health care coalitions can access for their responses.

RESULTS: The survey received a 50% response rate. Approximately 40% of respondents indicated they were "somewhat likely" to make changes based on data gathered by the tool. The original self-assessment tool was revised to create an expanded web-based version.

CONCLUSIONS: Health care coalitions and localities can use this tool to evaluate pediatric preparedness, identify needed improvements, and improve outcomes for children, families, and communities.

Language: en

Keywords

*Disaster Planning; *Disasters; Child; children; disaster; disaster mitigation; families; Hospitals, Pediatric; Humans; pediatric readiness; Self-Assessment; Surveys and Questionnaires