The federally-funded Pediatric Pandemic Network (PPN), which aims to improve outcomes for children in emergencies, disasters, and pandemics, is launching its next quality improvement initiative: the Disaster Response Collaborative (DRC). Children’s hospitals already registered for the first collaborative – the Disaster Networking Collaborative (DNC) – will be offered a quick way to become registered for the DRC.
The DRC is open to all children’s hospitals in the United States and U.S. Territories with the goal of assessing and expanding disaster response capacity in hospitals and creating a forum for a network of children’s hospitals to drive a coordinated response in a disaster or pandemic. The work is geared to meet the needs of the individual children’s hospital and its level of preparedness and response capacity.
This collaborative runs from September 2024 through June 2026. Participants can expect to dedicate approximately 5 to 8 hours per month to collaborative activities, including learning sessions, team project work, and a tabletop exercise and drills to test effectiveness of plans and project goals with tools provided.
The DRC will encourage teams to implement a project to assess and improve pediatric disaster response capability and capacity by choosing to work on one of the following four pediatric-specific disaster response focus areas (based on The Emergency Medical Services for Children Innovation and Improvement Center (EIIC) Disaster Checklist:
- Evacuation
- Pediatric patient tracking and family reunification
- Pediatric surge capacity
- Triage, infection control, decontamination
Participating children’s hospital teams will be offered options to attend collaborative educational and networking sessions, meet with teams working on similar topics, exchange ideas, refine best practices, and learn from PPN experts. Ultimately, teams can monitor and track progress through tabletop exercises and drills.
We encourage teams to have a minimum of at least two members to be able to share the work and offer diverse perspectives. A larger team allows for additional support and works best.
Team members may include the following: emergency/disaster management professionals, medical directors, emergency coordinators, paramedics, physicians, nurses, social workers, managers, mental and behavioral health professionals, representatives from hospital operations, security, quality/performance improvement, and public relations. Teams can include external members (e.g., community hospital and/or Healthcare Coalition representatives along with an EMSC State Partner Program Manager) if this approach will add value to project work.
Monthly virtual sessions will focus on critical topics, quality improvement strategies, and consensus-driven approaches.
The DRC session cadence includes:
Phase One – First 6 months will include an overview of the structure of the collaborative, an introduction of what can be achieved by focusing on each of the four focus areas identified above, and details on using a tabletop exercise and a pre- and post- drill to capture achievements and improvements.
Phase Two – Two of each three-month quarters will allow the hospitals that select a focus area to meet with other hospitals that have chosen the same topic to improve upon. The third session of each quarter will bring all collaborative participants together to learn from each other’s plans and efforts. This cadence will repeat and evolve over time.
Phase Three – Options for children’s hospital teams to report on project improvements, along with any barriers will be incorporated into the sessions, along with options to operate at a regional level, including observation of and involvement in exercises and drills.
The DRC aims to support PPN in efforts to form a sustainable network of children’s hospital leaders who strategically participate in pediatric disaster planning and response efforts.
Learn more and register.