@article{ref1,
title="A pediatric-focused self-assessment tool on vulnerabilities to aid regional disaster planning",
journal="Disaster medicine and public health preparedness",
year="2024",
author="Pintea, Michelle and Dahl Grove, Deanna",
volume="18",
number="",
pages="e28-e28",
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. <br><br>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. <br><br>RESULTS: The survey received a 50% response rate. Approximately 40% of respondents indicated they were &quot;somewhat likely&quot; to make changes based on data gathered by the tool. The original self-assessment tool was revised to create an expanded web-based version. <br><br>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.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1935-7893",
doi="10.1017/dmp.2024.27",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/dmp.2024.27"
}