@article{ref1,
title="Pediatric disaster preparedness and response and the nation's children's hospitals",
journal="American journal of disaster medicine",
year="2015",
author="Lyle, Kristin C. and Milton, Jerrod and Fagbuyi, Daniel and LeFort, Roxanna and Sirbaugh, Paul and Gonzalez, Jacqueline and Upperman, Jeffrey S. and Carmack, Tim and Anderson, Michael",
volume="10",
number="2",
pages="83-91",
abstract="OBJECTIVE: Children account for 30 percent of the US population; as a result, many victims of disaster events are children. The most critically injured pediatric victims would be best cared for in a tertiary care pediatric hospital. The Children's Hospital Association (CHA) undertook a survey of its members to determine their level of readiness to respond to a mass casualty disaster. <br><br>DESIGN: The Disaster Response Task Force constructed survey questions in October 2011. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: The survey was distributed via e-mail to the person listed as an &quot;emergency manager/disaster contact&quot; at each association member hospital and was designed to take less than 15 minutes to complete. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The survey sought to determine how children's hospitals address disaster preparedness, how prepared they feel for disaster events, and how CHA could support their efforts in preparedness. <br><br>RESULTS: One hundred seventy-nine surveys were distributed with a 36 percent return rate. Seventy percent of respondent hospitals have a structure in place to plan for disaster response. There was a stronger level of confidence for hospitals in responding to local casualty events than for those responding to large-scale regional, national, and international events. Few hospitals appear to interact with nonmedical facilities with a high concentration of children such as schools or daycares. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Little commonality exists among children's hospitals in approaches to disaster preparedness and response. Universally, respondents can identify a disaster response plan and routinely participate in drills, but the scale and scope of these plans and drills vary substantially.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1932-149X",
doi="10.5055/ajdm.2015.0193",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.5055/ajdm.2015.0193"
}