Pediatric-ready Emergency Department
A visit to the emergency department is never easy, but it can be especially hard when it’s a child who needs treatment for an illness or injury. That’s why the emergency department at Owensboro Health Regional Hospital has taken every possible step to make the experience as seamless as possible for our pediatric patients and their families.
A Closer Look at Pediatric-ready Certification
Each year, more than 30 million children visit emergency rooms. Yet more than 97% of all emergency rooms are in hospitals that don’t specialize in children’s care.
To create consistency and improve quality of care for children in emergency rooms across the country, the National Pediatric Readiness Project (NPRP) launched in 2012. The project awards certification to emergency departments that adopt the coordination of health, care, personnel, procedures and medical equipment standards needed to effectively care for children.
The NPRP project is led by the federally funded Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC) program in partnership with the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Emergency Physicians and the Emergency Nurses Association.
Emergency departments must pass an NPRP assessment to achieve certification. The assessment evaluates quality improvement efforts, including standards around certifications for doctors and nurses, patient assessment, triage, medication administration, and trauma resuscitation and stabilization.
In 2022, we were certified as a “pediatric-ready” emergency department. That means we have the equipment and education necessary to effectively—and compassionately—care for sick and injured children. And research shows that children treated at emergency rooms with this certification have better outcomes.
How does pediatric readiness help children treated in emergency departments?
A study published in JAMA Network Open in 2023 shows that children treated in pediatric-ready emergency rooms have higher survival rates for up to one year after hospitalization compared to those treated in emergency rooms without the certification.
Child life specialists help younger patients with certain uncomfortable situations, such as getting a shot, by getting to know the child’s interests and finding ways to distract them during procedures.
The specialists also help by demonstrating the items the patient may see, hear or feel during a procedure, preparing them for what they can expect, and rewarding them for getting through it with a number of different items they can pick out from a dedicated child life cart.