The CHLA Pediatric Disaster Resource and Training Center addresses a vast gap in current healthcare disaster plans. Many communities and institutions have few or no plans specifically for children.  

Yet children, particularly those separated from their parents or other familiar adults, are likely to be among the most vulnerable individuals in a catastrophe:  hurt, helpless, traumatized and often unable to clearly convey their needs.  Even those who are, or appear to be, unharmed may be fragile “walking wounded” desperately in need of care.

Nor can children be treated as small adults.  An earthquake, flood, wildfire, riot or chemical attack may inflict more debilitating injuries and more searing emotional trauma on children given their smaller stature, less developed physical systems, and greater emotional dependence.
 

Smaller bodies, different physiologies

Common vital signs, including heartbeat and respiration rates, have a different range in children than adults.  Some medications and treatment modalities that are effective for adults may be dangerous or life-threatening for children.  Some surgeries may be unnecessary, given that children may recover from injuries that adults would not.  

Relatively few hospitals, emergency centers and public health agencies have the proven best-practices roadmaps, rehearsed procedures and computing infrastructures to serve children in a major disaster.  Even fewer have plans that cover the full spectrum of children’s needs and related issues:  medical, psychological, logistical and legal.

Consider greater Los Angeles, the nation’s most populous urban area.  Despite that stature, local hospital and health agency leaders report that less than one-fourth of their institutions have written pediatric disaster plans.
 

The CHLA-ISI solution

Childrens Hospital LA, an international healthcare leader, and ISI’s Distributed Scalable Systems are working closely to develop a comprehensive, tested system that responds to children’s unique needs.  The extensible, highly replicable solution has the potential to become a model for pediatric disaster planning nationwide.

Its primary components:

Pediatric Emergency Decision Support System (PEDSS) software that leads healthcare administrators through customized, step-by-step disaster planning.  PEDSS will enable each first-responder institution to craft its own best-practices-based solution to match its capabilities and community needs.

PEDSS will include user support and readily installable technical architecture.  Led by ISI Division Director Robert Neches, Ph.D., PEDSS will be integrated with a regional information system to reunite separated children with their families.

• A companion user manual, plus voice and online support, for network members
• Server support architecture that integrates easily into computing platforms.
• Basic family re-unification capability, integrated with CHLA’s missing-child database system and administrative processes.
• PEDSS launch, system testing and evaluation for network members.

For more on the CHLA Pediatric Disaster Resource and Training Center, please click here.