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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Michael Ely, MHRM¹, Jane Ball, RN, DrPH², Ken Allen, BS², and Lenora Olson, MA, PhD¹. (1) Pediatrics, University of Utah, 295 Chipeta Way, Salt Lake City, UT 84158-1220, 801 585-9761, michael.ely@hsc.utah.edu, (2) Emergency Medical Services for Children National Resource Center, 8737 Colesville Road, #400, Silver Spring, MD 20910

Introduction: Assuring that children receive appropriate care in medical emergencies is critical for optimal patient outcomes. Federal appropriations to states have been used in various ways to improve this emergency care, but a longitudinal method of assessing the care infrastructure has not existed. This study describes the development and planned uses of specific performance measures to evaluate pediatric emergency medical service infrastructure over a five year period to improve public health. Development: A multi-step process was used to identify potential performance measures, including a thorough pediatric emergency care document review and a two-tiered screening approach for evaluating measure significance. Results/Implementation: Three performance measures were selected: ensuring operational capacity to provide pediatric emergency care; adopting pediatric training requirements for emergency providers; and promoting permanent status of pediatric issues in emergency medical systems. States are required to collect and report specific types of data beginning March 2006, and annually through 2011, for each measure, and work towards improving performance in areas falling below predetermined levels. Evaluation/Discussion: Evaluation includes the number of states awarded grants to capture and report data; the number of states that can capture complete data for each measure; the number of states that show progress over time by measure; and the ability to show progress over time at a national level by measure. Baseline data will be collected, analyzed, and presented for this abstract. Ultimately, this five-year analysis will be used to enhance the emergency medical service infrastructure that will lead to improved pediatric patient outcomes and public health.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• Understand the process used to develop specific performance measures for assessing pediatric emergency care infrastructure at the state level.
• Describe the three specific performance measures selected and their significance.
• From results of baseline data presented, recognize where infrastructure deficiencies exist and what areas need attention to enhance pediatric patient outcomes and improve public health.

Keywords: Emergency, Children's Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation