U1I55835

Regional Pediatric Prevention Network - The RPPN is a national network of children’s hospitals focused on strengthening pediatric disaster preparedness locally and regionally.

In 2021, HRSA founded the RPPN and, together, it established a community of hundreds of experts with a primary objective to improve the nation’s capability to care for all children impacted by disasters in every community.

The new PPN expands on this foundational work by focusing on specific identified needs to:

1) Grow pediatric disaster preparedness programs anchored at children’s hospitals;

2) Strengthen pediatric care capability throughout local-regional healthcare systems and disaster workforce;

3) Foster better community collaborations and partnerships to aid disaster resilience;

4) Evolve a sustainable, multidisciplinary professional discipline in pediatric disaster medicine operating at the highest level of research-informed care; and, thereby,

5) Enhance outcomes in target at-risk populations (children with special health care or behavioral health needs; those who live in rural, remote, or tribal communities; and poor communities with limited resources), including via expanded telehealth programs and pediatric readiness programs.

The PPN’s methodology is fundamentally defined by our structure as a network of children’s hospitals collaborating nationally and engaging locally.

The 5 centers and affiliate children’s hospitals embody pediatric preparedness and disaster care excellence that can lead their communities and regions to achieve the PPN goals.

Each center also contributes to the national collaborative efforts on topic-specific workgroups defining best practice, establishing quality improvement initiatives, producing educational material and support material (guidelines, toolkits, technical assistance), and supporting national data collection and analysis.

PPN partnerships and collaborations are also critical to our strategic plans for success.

These include partnerships with pediatric readiness and other disaster preparedness programs, community organizations (i.e., childcare centers, schools, medical homes), youth and family advisors, EMS agencies, healthcare coalitions, and a vast collection of subject matter expertise in key topics (i.e., telemedicine, trauma, infectious disease, mental health, etc.).

The scale of the network of hospitals and partners provides the structure and processes needed to achieve PPN goals and objectives.

Ambitious short-, medium-, and long-term objectives are defined with numerous specific metrics to measure the program’s success.

Examples of the most aspirational long-term measures to gauge our success (with associated high-level performance indicators) include:

1. Decreases in pediatric disaster-related morbidity and mortality as measured externally by CDC, FEMA, or NOAA event-specific reporting

2. Improved perceptions of preparedness expressed by youth and families in post-event or drill surveys

3. Development of pediatric disaster workforce professionals, evaluated by the number of pediatric practitioners nationally obtaining board certification in disaster medicine and/or assuming emergency management leadership roles at healthcare infrastructures

4. Expanded delivery of research-informed disaster related care, measured by increasing PDPACH survey scores of our children’s hospitals

5. Improved access to high-quality emergency healthcare for every child, in every situation, measured by pediatric emergency and disaster readiness scores for every hospital

6. Expand telehealth programs at each center, measured by the total number of rural, remote or tribal communities (facilities) served by each center.

University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center

THE PURPOSE OF THIS PROGRAM IS TO SUPPORT A REGIONAL PEDIATRIC PREVENTION NETWORK (RPPN). THE RPPN STRENGTHENS LOCAL AND REGIONAL CAPACITY TO CARE FOR CHILDREN DURING DISASTERS AND EMERGENCIES THROUGH COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS, COORDINATED PEDIATRIC PREPAREDNESS, AND DISSEMINATION OF RESEARCH-INFORMED PEDIATRIC DISASTER CARE. THE RPPN WILL INCLUDE AT LEAST 10 CHILDRENS HOSPITALS, OR THEIR UNIVERSITY PEDIATRIC PARTNERS, FUNDED THROUGH TWO PRIMARY AWARDS. IT WILL ALSO INCLUDE COMMUNITY PARTNERS WORKING WITH THESE HOSPITALS. EACH OF THE 10 CHILDRENS HOSPITAL CENTERS WILL ADVANCE PEDIATRIC EMERGENCY AND DISASTER PREPAREDNESS AT THE LOCAL, REGIONAL, AND NATIONAL LEVELS, INCLUDING FOR CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL HEALTH CARE NEEDS AND BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CONCERNS, CHILDREN LIVING IN POVERTY, AND CHILDREN IN RURAL, REMOTE, AND TRIBAL AREAS.

93.110 - Maternal and Child Health Federal Consolidated Programs

HRSA Office of Federal Assistance Management (OFAM) [HHS - HRSA]

Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) [HHS - HRSA]

Cleveland, Ohio United States

City-Wide

Regional Pediatric Prevention Network (HRSA-26-070)