Pediatric Emergency Planning and Disaster Preparedness Project

About

The Pennsylvania Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics (PA AAP) was granted the opportunity to participate in an American Academy of Pediatrics project focused on pediatric emergency planning and disaster preparedness needs of children, adolescents, and families.

Goals

This project received two project cycles and is working to meet the following goals:

Educating and engaging PA Chapter pediatricians, healthcare providers, and partners on the importance of emergency planning and disaster preparedness needs of children, adolescents, and families.
Exploring opportunities to foster connections between PA AAP members and community partners and/or parent organizations related to pediatric emergency planning and disaster preparedness.
Working with state health care coalitions to support pediatrician/pediatric expert involvement.
Working with the Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) program to reach diverse populations.

Achievements

To date, this project has completed the following:

Website development: The PA Medical Home Program at the PA AAP has developed a website for members to access educational resources for primary care practitioners, family members, and community members. This progress is ongoing as we continue to develop the site, pamedicalhomeprogram.org.
Training & resources: Worked with PA Department of Human Services (Medicaid), PA Department of Health, Family-to-Family, and other parent advocacy organizations, and Emergency Medical Services for Children to develop opportunities to deliver trainings and resources for partner organizations.
Informational tools: Developed Fire Safety infographics for youth with special health care needs, specifically related to communication, evacuation planning, and smoke alarms (March 2024).

Partnerships: We are continuing to leverage the work of our Home Assessment Tool and project and trainings developed with our HRSA project to share lessons learned, resources, and tools with our partners.
Collaborations: Our Pediatric Ambassador was part of a Home Nursing Coalition that met for two years with Medicaid and PA Department of Health. We are bringing this work to that statewide policy team as well. Our ambassador has been asked by Medicaid to give talks to several Medicaid groups and the Managed Care Organizations and partners.

Scholarship & Presentations

Invited to give talks to HRSA and PA Department of Human Services and Managed Care Organizations in October and November 2023 and has been asked to provide technical assistance to partners in Emergency Planning and Disaster Preparedness for Title V, Medicaid, and our Hispanos Unidos para Niños Excepcionales (HUNE) parent advocacy organization.
Presented at the PA AAP Let's Talk Pediatric Community Forum: "Emergency Planning and Disaster Preparedness for Children and Families with Special Health Care Needs in PA: Tools, Resources, and Supports" (November 2023).
Presented at the PA AAP 2024 Annual Pediatric Conference, Addressing Challenges in Modern Pediatrics. "Emergency Planning and Disaster Preparedness in PA: Supporting Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs, Families, and Systems" (March 2024).
Presented for our partners at the Pennsylvanian Sickle Cell PA Network at their PA Living Well with Sickle Cell Project ECHO, "Emergency Planning and Disaster Preparedness for Children, Youth, and Families with Sickle Cell Disease" (April 2024).
Our Pediatric Ambassador had three research abstracts accepted focused on emergency planning and disaster preparedness for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (CYSHCN) accepted for the 2024 Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting in Toronto (May 2024). She presented two oral abstract presentations and one poster presentation at the 2024 Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting (May 2024).

Go to our calendar to stay up to date on additional event opportunities.

PA AAP Contacts

A Chapter Pediatric Ambassador was identified and works to provide leadership and subject matter expertise, engage community members, and support PA Chapter activities related to pediatric emergency planning and disaster preparedness.

Renée M. Turchi, MD, MPH, FAAP- PA AAP Pediatric Ambassador
Chair, Pediatrics & Pediatrics & Pediatrician-in-Chief, St. Christopher's Hospital for Children
Medical Director, Center for Children and Youth with Special Healthcare Needs, St. Christopher's Hospital for Children
Professor, Pediatrics, Drexel University College of Medicine and Drexel Dornsife School of Public Health
Medical Director, PA Medical Home Program, PA AAP
E: [email protected]

Eileen Thompson, RN, BSN- PA AAP Staff
Director, Practice-Based Initiatives, PA AAP
Program Director, PA Medical Home Program, PA AAP
E: [email protected]

Resources

Here are some resources to share.

Emergency Preparedness Toolkits
Importance of Disaster Preparedness Plans
Professional Resources
Family Resources
CDC Public Health Emergency Preparedness Program and Guidance
Checklist of Essential Pediatric Domains and Considerations for Every Hospital's Disaster Preparedness Policies
- Recently updated by the Emergency Medical Services for Innovation and Improvement Center (EIIC)
PA Medical Home Program Resources

Additional Work

In partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Center for Public Health Readiness and Communication (CPHRC) collaborated on a four year project with the AJ Drexel Autism Institute at Drexel University, the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Center for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia to study the disaster information needs of children and youth with special health care needs. To help address these disaster information needs, we created a toolkit of disaster preparedness resources for families of CYSHCN and their health care providers. To access the resources and learn more about the toolkit, click here.