Emergency Medical Services for Children Innovation and Improvement Center

Issues, and Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network Program grant recipients, in order to help them to develop and implement Quality Improvement (QI) strategies to improve pediatric emergency medical services in both prehospital and hospital care settings. The EMSC Program does not intend to promote the development of a separate EMS system for children, but rather to enhance the pediatric capabilities of EMS systems, which were originally designed primarily for adults.  “EMS for Children” is understood broadly as a continuum of care relative to emergency medical services that includes the following components:  prevention, prehospital care, hospital-based emergency care, and rehabilitation and reentry of the child from the emergency care environment into the community. The EIIC will support the work of EMSC grant recipients to achieve this goal of optimal pediatric emergency care by: ·         Identifying evidence-based, evidence-informed, and innovative strategies and tools to improve pediatric emergency medical services; ·         Educating the EMSC community regarding evidence-based, evidence-informed, and innovative strategies and tools; and ·         Advancing the National EMSC Performance Measures through the development and implementation of QI collaboratives. SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time measurable) objectives for the EMSC program for the next four years are as follows:            ·          By 2017, at least 90% of the EMSC State Partnership recipients will be prepared for the prehospital baseline assessment of the new EMSC performance measures.            ·          By 2019, 20 states will have adopted and or engaged in at least one QI strategy/ process.            ·          By 2019, at least 30% of hospitals will show an increase in their Pediatric Readiness score by 10%. The overarching activities listed below are required as part of this funding opportunity and additional details are included in Section IV of this FOA. 1)      Provide education, training and consultation on prehospital and hospital pediatric emergency care through subject matter experts; 2)      Establish and implement QI collaboratives; 3)      Develop QI tools and products needed by EMSC grant recipients; 4)      Disseminate QI tools and products; 5)      Facilitate communication within the EMS community and recipients; and 6)      Collaborate and communicate with the EMSC Program and key stakeholders. Through the work of the EIIC, the EMSC program seeks measurable system and EMSC performance measures improvements. The EIIC applicant should identify specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time measurable (SMART) objectives that are consistent with the abovementioned Program SMART objectives and must include objectives that will result in the activities, products and outcomes specified in the EMSC Innovation and Improvement Cooperative Agreement Program Logic Model (see Appendix).  This FOA includes the expected activities, products, and outcomes to achieve these objectives.  Additional SMART objectives that align with the expected activities, products, outcomes should be consistent with detailed action steps describing how objectives will be attained.