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Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital Receives Grant to Establish Pediatric Disaster Care Center of Excellence

Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital has been awarded funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish a Pediatric Disaster Care Center of Excellence. As one of only two grantees selected nationwide, Rainbow and its partners received $3 million to support this work. The other project chosen for funding is led by University of California San Francisco (USCF) Health System and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital.

Comprising 25% of the population, children face specialized medical issues due to their unique developmental and physiologic characteristics, and their care requires specialized equipment, supplies, and pharmaceuticals including, and perhaps especially, during a disaster.

“We were excited when this grant opportunity was announced,” said Deanna Dahl Grove, MD, who is leading the UH Rainbow project. “For the past 14, 15 years, we have been saying, ‘What about the kids?’”

This federal funding, which comes through the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response (ASPR), supports the important work necessary to ensure communities are prepared to meet the needs of this special population.

HOSPITAL PARTNERS

The Rainbow-led project includes participation by the following hospitals in Ohio and Michigan:

●     Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

●     Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

●     University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.

●     Children’s Hospital of Michigan.

●     Spectrum Health Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital.

Together, these organizations form the Eastern Great Lakes Pediatric Consortium for Disaster Response.

GRANT PROJECT GOALS

Work on this initiative falls into three categories:

1. Individual hospital preparedness.
2. Regional pediatric capacity expansion.
3. Strategic alignment of systems and programs.

Activities of the grant include:

• Assessing the capabilities and resources within the region and using that information to create a pediatric asset map.
• Strengthening health system coordination and preparedness for a surge in the number of pediatric patients during a disaster by conducting a gap analysis, reviewing crisis standards of care, and creating guidelines.
• Supporting the implementation of pediatric annexes, which are addendums to the regional disaster preparedness plans that specifically address pediatric patients.
• Increasing and maintaining healthcare professional competency through the development and delivery of a standardized training program using curriculum recommendations from National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health.
• Enhancing practices related to the dissemination of information to impacted healthcare systems during disasters.

Ultimately, the Eastern Great Lakes Pediatric Consortium seeks to develop best practices around disaster preparedness and response that will be shared with other children’s and non-children’s hospitals and affiliated entities in the region. The Center of Excellence designation establishes Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital and its project partners as nationwide leaders in addressing the needs of children during emergencies or disasters.

ADDITIONAL PARTNERS

An important partner in the grant project is the Emergency Medical Services for Children Innovation and Improvement Center (EMSC IIC), which has a presence in all 50 states and aims to support improvements in emergency care for pediatric patients. A key aspect of the grant work involves helping to improve pediatric care delivery at non-children’s hospitals. EMSC IIC’s work is based on the idea that the ability to provide quality care to pediatric patients on a day-to-day basis forms the foundation for providing effective pediatric care during disaster response.

The UH Rainbow-led project is being conducted in collaboration with and with support from the state of Ohio’s Pediatric Disaster Preparedness Coalition and in tandem with the development of the pediatric annexes. The annexes are additions to the regional preparedness plans that specifically address pediatric patients and incorporate such aspects as training and exercises, the use of telemedicine, behavioral health resources, quality indicators, and information technology integration.

The initiative also brings together private and public entities in Michigan and Ohio, including emergency medical services, public health, emergency management agencies, and the federal disaster response regional healthcare coalitions, one of which is led by The Center for Health Affairs. Together, these organizations will provide a multi-pronged approach to addressing the specific needs of children during a disaster, encompassing mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery, for a geographic area that is home to nearly 7 million children.

PROJECT LEADERSHIP

Dr. Dahl Grove, who is heading up the project, is a pediatric emergency physician in the Division of Emergency Medicine at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital as well as associate professor of pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. She has a substantial background in both emergency medical services and disaster preparedness and response.

In 2005, when Hurricane Katrina struck states on the Gulf Coast, Dr. Dahl Grove became involved with disaster readiness and response as she worked to prepare UH Rainbow to potentially receive children affected and displaced by that event. Since then, her involvement in pediatric disaster preparedness work has only continued to grow. She has been involved in state-level work for a number of years and also participates at the national level in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Advisory Council as well as the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Disaster Preparedness and Recovery.

Dr. Dahl Grove emphasizes the collaborative nature of this grant initiative and expresses appreciation for her colleagues in Ohio and Michigan who are also engaged in it. Locally, two of her key partners include co-investigator Charles G. Macias, MD, MPH, and senior project manager Michelle Moegling, RN, BSN, CPN. Dr. Macias is chief of the Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine as well as vice chair of quality and safety and chief quality officer at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital and Ms. Moegling is coordinator of the Rainbow Care Connection Network.

“There is a lot of coordination happening between the two states,” said Dr. Dahl Grove. “There is no way I could do it without the support of all of the people in Michigan and Ohio working on this project.”

MORE: For more on the regional emergency preparedness work underway in Northeast Ohio, contact us.

TWEETABLE: Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital is one of only two grantees selected nationwide to establish a Pediatric Disaster Care Center of Excellence.