Wisconsin Emergency Medical Services for Children (WI EMSC) created a program to guide community emergency departments (EDs) to be more prepared to treat children.
The Wisconsin Pediatric Readiness Program for Community Emergency Departments (Pediatric Readiness Program) enhances access to quality, evidence-based pediatric emergency care and addresses the health inequity that currently exists in pediatric care in rural and community EDs. In 2021, more than 269,000 (79.2%) of pediatric visits occurred in Wisconsin community EDs, while only 70,000 (20.8%) occurred in Level I and II Pediatric Trauma Center EDs.
WI EMSC is excited to announce that Aspirus Langlade Hospital has completed participation in the Pediatric Readiness Program.
“Participating in this program allowed us to focus more on our potential pediatric patients who are often high risk, but low volume to our emergency department,” said Cathy Connor, RN, MSN, Emergency Department Manager at Aspirus Langlade Hospital. “We were able to refine our process improvement plan to make sure we were capturing the important data that will help us in the future.”
To increase knowledge and readiness surrounding pediatric emergency care, some of the elements Aspirus Langlade Hospital implemented during the Cohort 2 period (June 2023 – May 2024) include:
1. Implemented many different quality improvement measures that started to address pediatric patient vitals.
2. Worked on ensuring they have pediatric competencies for physician maintenance of board certification.
3. Worked on different policy and procedures to make sure that the pediatric patient was included.
Hear more from Cathy about why this program is important in
this video from WI EMSC.
Aspirus Langlade Hospital has played a key role in improving overall pediatric readiness statewide. These efforts ensure that children receive top-notch emergency care, regardless of location.