Outside the Box and Into Thick Air: Implementation of an Exterior Mobile Pediatric Emergency Response Team for North American H1N1 (Swine) Influenza Virus in Houston, Texas

Cruz, Andrea T.; Patel, Binita; DiStefano, Michael C.; Codispoti, Catherine R; Shook, Joan E.; Demmler-Harrison, Gail J.; Sirbaugh, Paul E.

doi:10.1016/j.annemergmed.2009.08.003

Cited by 44 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…6 The flexible, multi-phase approach to surge allows for an adaptable response during sudden-onset disasters as well as during unexpected volume increases. 9 The Boston Medical Center (Boston, Massachusetts USA) successfully operated an extension pediatric clinic in a single room space during the H1N1 pandemic in June 2009. The Cook Children's Medical Center in Ft. Worth, Texas USA, which experienced one of the earliest H1N1 surges in April 2009, opened an Incident Command Center and coordinated with local hospitals.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pandemic Influenza Extension Areas in an Urban Pediatric Hospital

Charney

Armbrecht

Kennedy

et al. 2012

Prehosp. Disaster med.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pandemic Influenza Extension Areas in an Urban Pediatric Hospital

Charney

Armbrecht

Kennedy

et al. 2012

Prehosp. Disaster med.

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“…1,[14][15][16] Pediatric victims who are separated from their families may not be able to self-identify or seek out family members due to their age, developmental delay, severe injury, or death. 10 Thus, all EDs in collaboration with their institutions should have plans to assist with family reunification.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Novel Image‐based Tool to Reunite Children With Their Families After Disasters

Chung

Christoudias

Darrell

et al. 2012

Academic Emergency Medicine

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Objectives: Reuniting children with their families after a disaster poses unique challenges. The objective was to pilot test the ability of a novel image-based tool to assist a parent in identifying a picture of his or her children.Methods: A previously developed image-based indexing and retrieval tool that employs two advanced vision search algorithms was used. One algorithm, Feature-Attribute-Matching, extracts facial features (skin color, eye color, and age) of a photograph and then matches according to parental input. The other algorithm, User-Feedback, allows parents to choose children on the screen that appear similar to theirs and then reprioritizes the images in the database. This was piloted in a convenience sample of parentchild pairs in a pediatric tertiary care hospital. A photograph of each participating child was added to a preexisting image database. A double-blind randomized crossover trial was performed to measure the percentage of database reviewed and time using the Feature-Attribute-Matching-plus-User-Feedback strategy or User-Feedback strategy only. Search results were compared to a theoretical random search. Afterward, parents completed a survey evaluating satisfaction.Results: Fifty-one parent-child pairs completed the study. The Feature-Attribute-Matching-plus-UserFeedback strategy was superior to the User-Feedback strategy in decreasing the percentage of database reviewed (mean ± SD = 24.1 ± 20.1% vs. 35.6 ± 27.2%; mean difference = À11.5%; 95% confidence interval [CI] = À21.5% to À1.4%; p = 0.03). Both were superior to the random search (p < 0.001). Time for both searches was similar despite fewer images reviewed in the Feature-Attribute-Matching-plus-UserFeedback strategy. Sixty-eight percent of parents were satisfied with the search and 87% felt that this tool would be very or extremely helpful in a disaster.Conclusions: This novel image-based reunification system reduced the number of images reviewed before parents identified their children. This technology could be further developed to assist future family reunifications in a disaster.

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“…[5][6][7] The mild presentation of our cohort, illustrated by the fact that only half met previously defined criteria for an encounter necessitating ED-level care and few were admitted, confirms suggestions that many of these patient encounters could have taken place in a less resource-intense ambulatory setting such as an existing clinic 7 or an alternative care site set up to treat high volumes of low-acuity patients. 38,40 The large influx of low-acuity patients challenged a nationwide health care system whose mainstays of pandemic preparedness focus on stockpiling supplies for the critically ill or injured, as opposed to having broadly distributed surge capacity to meet differing levels of need. This finding is helpful to future surge and health policy planning, as it highlights the need for a better-integrated delivery system that can appropriately match capacity to demand and acuity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resource Burden at Children’s Hospitals Experiencing Surge Volumes During the Spring 2009 H1N1 Influenza Pandemic

Sills

Hall

Simon

et al. 2011

Academic Emergency Medicine

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Objectives: The objective was to describe the emergency department (ED) resource burden of the spring 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic at U.S. children's hospitals by quantifying observed-to-expected utilization. Methods:The authors performed an ecologic analysis for April through July 2009 using data from 23 EDs in the Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS), an administrative database of widely distributed U.S. children's hospitals. All ED visits during the study period were included, and data from the 5 prior years were used for establishing expected values. Primary outcome measures included observedto-expected ratios for ED visits for all reasons and for influenza-related illness (IRI).

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Outside the Box and Into Thick Air: Implementation of an Exterior Mobile Pediatric Emergency Response Team for North American H1N1 (Swine) Influenza Virus in Houston, Texas

Abstract: The mobile pediatric emergency response team and screening and triage algorithms were able to safely and effectively identify a group of low-acuity patients who could be rapidly evaluated and discharged, alleviating ED volume and potentially preventing transmission of H1N1 influenza.

Cited by 44 publications

References 12 publications

Pandemic Influenza Extension Areas in an Urban Pediatric Hospital

Pandemic Influenza Extension Areas in an Urban Pediatric Hospital

A Novel Image‐based Tool to Reunite Children With Their Families After Disasters

Resource Burden at Children’s Hospitals Experiencing Surge Volumes During the Spring 2009 H1N1 Influenza Pandemic

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