Adopting pediatric readiness standards improves survival in hospital emergency departments
Emergency departments that have the highest levels of coordination of healthcare, personnel, procedures and medical equipment needed to care for ill and injured children have far higher rates of survival than hospitals with low readiness, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Researchers found that more than 1,400 children’s deaths may have been prevented if hospital emergency departments had adopted national pediatric care readiness standards as laid out by the National Pediatric Readiness Project. The six-year study of 983 emergency departments in 11 states followed nearly 800,000 children.
Compared to children cared for in low-readiness departments, children with injuries cared for in high-readiness departments had a 60% lower chance of dying in the hospital; and children with medical illness had a 76% lower chance of dying while they were in the hospital. Similarly, among roughly 545,000 children in six states, injured children in the highest quartile had a 41% lower chance of dying within a year and children with medical issues had a 66% lower chance of dying within a year, compared to children cared for in hospitals in the lowest readiness quartile.
The study appears in JAMA Network Open.
