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Emergency Medical Services for Children
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FY
2007
Actual |
FY
2008
Enacted |
FY
2009
Request |
FY
2009 +/-
FY 2008 |
BA |
$19,800,000 |
$19,454,000 |
-- |
-$19,454,000 |
Authorizing
Legislation - Section 1910 of the Public Health
Service Act.
FY
2009 Authorization |
Expired
|
Allocation
Method |
Competitive
grant/co-operative agreement |
Program Description and Accomplishments
The Emergency Medical Services for Children
(EMSC) Program began in 1984 and was designed
to ensure state-of-the-art emergency medical
care for ill or injured children and adolescents.
It covered the entire spectrum of emergency
medical care. The EMSC program provided grants
to States to improve existing Emergency Medical
Services (EMS) systems and to schools of medicine
to develop and evaluate improved procedures
and protocols for treating children.
In FY 2007, the EMSC Program awarded 54 Grants
to States and Territories which focused on ensuring
operational capacity to provide pediatric emergency
care through: (1) building capacity for pediatric
components of statewide EMS data collection
efforts; (2) adopting requirements for pediatric
emergency education for the recertification
of paramedics; (3) establishing permanence of
EMSC in the State/Territory EMS system and;
(4) incorporating pediatric EMS issues into
preparedness for mass casualty disasters and
terrorism. State’s progress toward achieving
these outcomes was tracked using EMSC Program
performance measures. The EMSC Program supported
the National EMSC Data Analysis Resource Center
in order to help State EMS Offices and medical
schools developed their own capabilities to
collect, analyze, and utilize EMS and other
healthcare data to improve the quality of care
in State EMS systems.
The EMSC Program also funded 16 Targeted Issues
grants to States and medical schools. These
grants were demonstration projects that focused
on a wide array of emerging and critical topics
including: improving emergency department management
of children with head trauma, seizures, and
diabetic ketoacidosis; increasing patient safety;
improving pre-hospital pain management in children;
developing a computer-based emergency department
screening process for adolescent depression;
enhancing coordination between EMS and primary
care for injured adolescents and alcohol problems
and post-traumatic stress disorder; and improving
the quality of prehospital care of pediatric
patients through more accurate assessment by
paramedic providers. The EMSC Program also funded
the Network Development Demonstration Project
in order to conduct meaningful and rigorous
multi-institutional studies in the management
of acute illness and injury in children across
the continuum of emergency medicine. The EMSC
Program collaborated with the Department of
Transportation’s National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration since its inception and
was a partner in the implementation of the National
EMS Information System. The EMSC Program collaborated
with the Indian Health Service (IHS) in order
to ensure the availability of pediatric specific
training initiatives tailored to the needs of
tribal EMS and IHS medical facility professionals.
The program supported the development of improved
emergency procedures and protocols for children.
In FY 2006, 20 State EMS systems demonstrated
the operational capacity to provide pediatric
emergency care. In 2006, 21 States adapted requirements
for pediatric emergency education for the re-certification
of paramedics.
The EMSC program was reviewed in 2004 using
the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART). and
was given a score of Results Not Demonstrated.
The review cited that the program has a clear
purpose, but had not developed performance measures
that reflected the purpose of the program. Since
that time, the program has developed a long-term
health outcome measure and annual measures.
As part of the review the program was directed
to conduct an independent evaluation of the
EMSC program. The Institute of Medicine (IOM)
completed a study of the Nation’s emergency
care system entitled “The Future of Emergency
Care in the U.S. Health System”in 2006
which met the requirement for the evalaution.
The study included an examination of the unique
challenges associated with the provision of
emergency
services to children and adolescents.
Funding includes costs associated with grant
reviews, processing of grants through the Grants
Administration Tracking and Evaluation System
(GATES) and HRSA’s electronic handbook,
and follow-up performance reviews.
Funding History
FY
2004 |
$19,860,000
|
FY
2005 |
$19,831,000
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FY
2006 |
$19,786,000
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FY
2007 |
$19,800,000 |
FY
2008 |
$19,454,000 |
Budget
Request
The FY 2009 request provides no funding for
this program rated as results not demonstrated
through the PART process. These activities may
be more addressed through the MCH Block Grant.
See
Table
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