The aim of this study was to describe our expansion of a Massachusetts grassroots initiative-to increase the appointment of pediatric emergency care coordinators (PECCs) in emergency departments ...(EDs)-to all 6 New England states.
We conducted annual surveys of all EDs in New England from 2015 to 2020 regarding 2014 to 2019, respectively. Data collection included ED characteristics. The intervention from 2018 to 2019 relied on principles of self-organization and collaboration with local stakeholders including state Emergency Medical Services for Children agencies, American College of Emergency Physician state chapters, and Emergency Nursing Association state chapters to help encourage appointment of at least 1 PECC to every ED. Most ED leadership were contacted in person at regional meetings, by e-mail and/or telephone. We reached out to each individual ED to both educate and encourage action.
Survey response rates were greater than 85% in all years. From 2014 to 2016, less than 30% of New England EDs reported a PECC. In 2017, 51% of EDs in New England reported a PECC, whereas in 2019, 91% of New England EDs reported a PECC. All other ED characteristics remained relatively consistent from 2014 to 2019.
We successfully expanded a Massachusetts grassroots initiative to appoint PECCs to all of New England. Through individual outreach, and using principles of self-organization and creating collaborations with local stakeholders, we were able to increase the prevalence of PECCs in New England EDs from less than 30% to greater than 90%. This framework also led to the creation of a New England-wide PECC network and has fostered ongoing collaboration and communication throughout the region.
Objectives
Appointment of a pediatric emergency care coordinator (PECC) is considered the single best intervention to improve pediatric emergency care and has been recommended for all U.S. general ...emergency departments (EDs) for more than a decade. Unfortunately, many EDs do not adhere with this recommendation. In 2017, we performed a grassroots intervention to establish a PECC in every Massachusetts ED.
Methods
We conducted annual surveys of all 73 Massachusetts EDs from 2014 to 2018. Data collection included ED visit volumes, presence of a pediatric area, and PECC status. The intervention in 2017–2018 included e‐mails and telephone calls to every ED director to not only assess PECC status but also encourage him/her to appoint one as needed.
Results
Survey response rates were > 85% in all years and 100% during 2016 to 2018. While Massachusetts EDs did not materially change over time (in terms of visit volumes or presence of a pediatric area), the 2017 intervention increased the percentage of EDs with an appointed PECC. Specifically, PECCs were present in approximately 30% of EDs during 2014 to 2016, climbed to 85% in 2017, and reached 100% in 2018. Most of the newly appointed PECCs were physicians.
Conclusions
Through a relatively simple grassroots intervention, we increased the appointment of PECCs in Massachusetts EDs from 30% to 100%. In addition to providing PECCs with online educational materials, ongoing work is focused on building community, identifying best practices, and implementing interventions at the local level.
In 2009, “Guidelines for the Care of Children in the Emergency Department” was published by the American College of Emergency Physicians, Emergency Nurses Association and American Academy of ...Pediatrics, which included the specific recommendation to obtain and document weight exclusively in kilograms 7. ...despite ten years of pediatric weighing recommendations, a significant portion of Massachusetts EDs still do not obtain and document pediatric weights exclusively in kilograms 7. A better understanding of barriers to following the guidelines and the possible impact of changing current weighing practices is needed to create interventions that lead to safe and effective patient-centered care.Funding sources R Baby Foundation (New York, United States of America).Author contributions AAF, EP, KB, CC and JL all contributed to original concept and design of project.
To compare the use of analgesia in children to adults in 3 different emergency department (ED) settings.
Forty adult and 40 pediatric ED charts were randomly selected for review at each of 3 ...institutions: an academic medical center with separate pediatric and adult EDs (SEP ED), a community academic medical center with a combined adult and pediatric ED (COMB ED), and a community hospital with a combined ED (COMTY ED). All patients presenting to the EDs from July 1993 to June 1994 within 12 hours of an isolated long bone fracture were eligible for inclusion. Data were collected on demographics, training of providers, analgesic use and dosing in the ED and on discharge, and time from triage to analgesic use.
The mean pediatric and adult ages were 8.7 and 38.3 years, respectively. Overall, 152/240 (63%) patients received some form of analgesia in the ED, with the COMTY ED (41/80; 51%) offering significantly less analgesia than the COMB ED (58/80; 73%), but not the SEP ED (53/80; 66%). Pediatric patients (64/120; 53%) received significantly less analgesia in the ED than adult patients (88/120; 73%). This difference was significant at the COMB ED (pediatric 23/40; 58% vs adult 35/40; 88%) and COMTY ED (pediatric 15/40; 38% vs adult 26/40; 65%), but not at the SEP ED (pediatric 26/40; 65% vs adult 27/40; 68%). 195/240 (81%) patients received discharge pain medication. There were no differences between pediatric (93/120; 78%) and adult (102/120; 85%) discharge analgesic prescribing practices. Although there was no difference in appropriateness of analgesic doses in the ED, pediatric patients (20/74; 27%) were more likely than adult patients (3/88; 3%) to receive inadequate doses of analgesics on discharge from the ED.
ED analgesia continues to be used less frequently in the pediatric compared with the adult population. Inadequate dosing of discharge analgesic medication in children is a significant problem. Patterns of analgesic utilization may differ in different types of ED settings.
This is a revision of the previous joint Policy Statement titled "Guidelines for Care of Children in the Emergency Department." Children have unique physical and psychosocial needs that are ...heightened in the setting of serious or life-threatening emergencies. The majority of children who are ill and injured are brought to community hospital emergency departments (EDs) by virtue of proximity. It is therefore imperative that all EDs have the appropriate resources (medications, equipment, policies, and education) and capable staff to provide effective emergency care for children. In this Policy Statement, we outline the resources necessary for EDs to stand ready to care for children of all ages. These recommendations are consistent with the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine (now called the National Academy of Medicine) in its report "The Future of Emergency Care in the US Health System." Although resources within emergency and trauma care systems vary locally, regionally, and nationally, it is essential that ED staff, administrators, and medical directors seek to meet or exceed these recommendations to ensure that high-quality emergency care is available for all children. These updated recommendations are intended to serve as a resource for clinical and administrative leadership in EDs as they strive to improve their readiness for children of all ages.
Study objectives: We determine whether the addition of heat to topical eutectic mixture of local anesthetic (EMLA) cream shortens the onset time to effective analgesia. We hypothesized that applying ...EMLA cream for 20 minutes with an external heat pack would be as effective as the standard 60-minute application time. Methods: In this prospective, double-blind study using adult volunteers, research subjects were randomized into groups undergoing either 20 minutes or 60 minutes of EMLA cream application time. Each research subject underwent randomized cream application over both hands and wrists in the following manner: EMLA cream with heat, EMLA cream without heat, placebo with heat, and placebo without heat. Research subjects then underwent a single attempt at intravenous catheterization over each of the 4 sites and scored the degree of pain using a 100-mm visual analog scale. Results: Seventy-six research subjects were enrolled: 39 were randomized to the 20-minute group, and 37 were randomized to the 60-minute group. EMLA cream applied for 20 minutes with heat (adjusted mean visual analog scale score of 31.9 mm) provided statistically and clinically significantly greater analgesia compared with that seen in the placebo groups with or without heat (46.6 and 46.1 mm, respectively), with estimated differences of −14.6 (95% confidence interval CI −21.2 to −8.1) and −14.1 (95% CI −20.8 to −7.3), respectively. However, applying EMLA cream for 60 minutes without heat (16.6 mm) provided better analgesia compared with that seen after 20 minutes of EMLA cream with heat (31.9 mm; estimated difference of −15.4 95% CI −25.1 to −5.6). Conclusion: Applying EMLA cream for 20 minutes with heat provides intermediate analgesia for intravenous catheter placement, although 60 minutes of application time remains superior. Ann Emerg Med. 2003;42:27-33.
Pediatric patients cared for in emergency departments (EDs) are at high risk of medication errors for a variety of reasons. A multidisciplinary panel was convened by the Emergency Medical Services ...for Children program and the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Pediatric Emergency Medicine to initiate a discussion on medication safety in the ED. Top opportunities identified to improve medication safety include using kilogram-only weight-based dosing, optimizing computerized physician order entry by using clinical decision support, developing a standard formulary for pediatric patients while limiting variability of medication concentrations, using pharmacist support within EDs, enhancing training of medical professionals, systematizing the dispensing and administration of medications within the ED, and addressing challenges for home medication administration before discharge.
Pediatric Readiness in the Emergency Department Remick, Katherine; Gausche-Hill, Marianne; Joseph, Madeline M. ...
Annals of emergency medicine,
December 2018, 2018-12-00, 20181201, Volume:
72, Issue:
6
Journal Article
Children with chronic medical conditions rely on complex management plans for problems that cause them to be at increased risk for suboptimal outcomes in emergency situations. The emergency ...information form (EIF) is a medical summary that provides rapid access to critical information to physicians and other members of the health care team so that optimal emergency medical care can be provided. This statement describes an updated approach to EIFs and the information they contain. Essential common data elements are reviewed, integration with electronic health records is discussed, and broadening the rapid availability and use of health data for all children and youth is proposed. A broader approach to data accessibility and use could extend the benefits of rapid access to critical information for all children receiving emergency care as well as further facilitating emergency preparedness during disaster management.
In 2018, the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine and the journal Academic Emergency Medicine (AEM) convened a consensus conference entitled, “Academic Emergency Medicine Consensus Conference: ...Aligning the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Research Agenda to Reduce Health Outcome Gaps.” This article is the product of the breakout session, “Emergency Department Collaboration‐Pediatric Emergency Medicine in Non‐Children's Hospital”).
This subcommittee consisting of emergency medicine, pediatric emergency medicine, and quality improvement (QI) experts, as well as a patient advocate, identified main outcome gaps in the care of children in the emergency departments (EDs) in the following areas: variations in pediatric care and outcomes, pediatric readiness, and gaps in knowledge translation. The goal for this session was to create a research agenda that facilitates collaboration and partnering of diverse stakeholders to develop a system of care across all ED settings with the aim of improving quality and increasing safe medical care for children. The following recommended research strategies emerged: explore the use of technology as well as collaborative networks for education, research, and advocacy to develop and implement patient care guidelines, pediatric knowledge generation and dissemination, and pediatric QI and prepare all EDs to care for the acutely ill and injured pediatric patients. In conclusion, collaboration between general EDs and academic pediatric centers on research, dissemination, and implementation of evidence into clinical practice is a solution to improving the quality of pediatric care across the continuum.
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