The Disaster Response Collaborative is in Progress!
DRC Updates
The DRC Session 11 was held on July 1, 2025. The next session is on August 5, 2025, from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. CST. Register to attend this full collaborative session.
See focus area session details, recordings, and slides on the webpages below:
- Evacuation
- Pediatric Patient Tracking & Family Reunification
- Triage/Infection Control/Decontamination
- Surge
Registration for the DRC is now closed.
Pediatric Disaster Preparedness Self-Assessment for Children's Hospitals (PDPACH)
The PDPACH is the environmental scan for the DRC – all DRC hospitals should complete the section of this assessment specific to their selected focus area and work towards submitting the whole survey. Results will be shared with focus area leaders to identify common gaps and guide content for future sessions.
Fireside Chat on Mental/Behavioral Health
Learn about trauma-informed mental health care and disaster response strategies. See recording and slides.
Learn about the DRC
The Disaster Response Collaborative (DRC) continues the work of the Disaster Networking Collaborative (DNC), and both are initiatives of the Pediatric Pandemic Network (PPN). These initiatives support ongoing efforts to form a network of children’s hospitals that are (individually and collectively) prepared to respond to disasters and pandemics. The goal of the DRC is to improve pediatric disaster response capability and capacity among children’s hospitals.
This collaborative focuses on four pediatric priority areas: evacuation, reunification, surge, and triage/infection control/decontamination. The DRC will help children’s hospitals achieve improvements in these disaster response areas and provide quality care for children when needed during an emergency, disaster, or pandemic. The DRC will provide guidance and resources to support participants to implement improvements and to use tabletop exercises and drills to monitor and track improvements in disaster response.
Through offering opportunities for education, networking, sharing of evidence-based practices, and exchanging new ideas and strategies, this collaborative will also support the workforce resiliency of employees at children’s hospitals by improving their job satisfaction.
Quality Improvement
The DRC is a Quality Improvement (QI) collaborative. Learn about QI science, collaboratives, framework, and tools and resources here.
For more information, see About the DRC or email DNCPPN@austin.utexas.edu.