Regents of the University of California, San Francisco

Pediatric Disaster Care Centers of Excellence Cooperative Agreement

Under the Pediatric Disaster Care Centers of Excellence Cooperative Agreement, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Health System and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals, are leading the Western Region Alliance for Pediatric Emergency Management (WRAPEM). WRAPEM is an alliance of health care providers, pediatric medical centers, subject matter experts and government agencies throughout California, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona and Washington, representing the most extensive collection of pediatric preparedness and response experts ever assembled. WRAPEM serves a region that includes nearly 13 million children.

WRAPEM includes the majority of the western states’ pediatric medical centers, disaster coalitions, large community health care systems, representatives from state and local agencies, and coalition partners. The group includes subject matter experts with backgrounds in chemical biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) preparedness, trauma, burns, disaster mental health, telemedicine, education, EMS, obstetrics, ethics, and law.

The goal of WRAPEM is to develop a coordinated, collaborative and sustainable regional pediatric disaster planning and response capability that effectively matches resources to needs during large scale pediatric mass casualty events. WRAPEM will be governed by a leadership board and operational staff that represent all of the areas served and incorporates institutional expertise from medical centers, subject matter experts, and government agencies.

Priorities and Approach

WRAPEM will conduct a comprehensive review of all available resources, which will then be catalogued into a resource guide that aligns existing capabilities with regional needs. This resource guide will define the core elements of regional capabilities including:

• available assets;
• supply chains;
• existing surge and evacuation plans;
• outcomes and lessons learned from exercises and real time events;
• current legal and ethical policies;
• current deployable staff equipment and assets;
• telemedicine capabilities;
• patient tracking and reunification;
• communications; and
• pediatric disaster mental health considerations.

An evaluation of existing training and educational, (including web‐based) communications tools, situational awareness and pediatric readiness metrics and regional readiness assessment tools will be completed. Training will be developed to enhance the capacity and capabilities for treating pediatric patients involved in mass casualty events involving CBRN agents; penetrating and other trauma; burns; and epidemic infectious diseases. A publicly accessible website and telecommunications platform will be the core repository for all of these efforts.

WRAPEM will conduct a formal regional gap analysis to inform the ability to establish a comprehensive and integrated response model that addresses CBRN, trauma, burns and other natural and technological disasters that potentially have a disproportionately high impact on children.

Additionally, WRAPEM will focus on several key projects with deliverable products and measurable impact. These include:

• developing a published guide for accessing regional pediatric disaster response expertise, along with an operational coordination center integrating established state and federal responders;
• compiling regional resource material that align interstate pediatric best practice and policy;
• developing training modules with a pediatric‐specific focus for all event types;
• establishing telemedicine interconnectedness across the region;
• implementing regular pediatric focused exercises with broad regional participation;
• developing patient tracking, reunification and information‐sharing practices that address interstate operational complexity; and
• formulating a regional Pediatric Disaster Mental Health plan.

These efforts will be closely coordinated with ASPR and the other selected Center of Excellence. The accomplishments will be used to define a pediatric regional health care response system model that can be further enhanced and integrated with overall emergency operation plans to deliver the very best outcomes for children and their families.