A Dubuque hospital is the first hospital in Iowa to be recognized for readiness to provide emergency care for children in a new program that will soon be expanded across the state.
MercyOne Dubuque Medical Center served as the pilot hospital for the state’s new Iowa Pediatric Emergency Assessment and Care (IPEAC) Recognition Program, designed by the Iowa Health and Human Services Emergency Medical Services for Children program.
A press release states that IPEAC “recognizes the work of hospitals of all sizes to ensure each is prepared to provide initial stabilization, treatment and any needed transfers to definitive care for ill and injured children in Iowa.”
Robert Wethal, MercyOne’s vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer, said MercyOne staff have been in conversations with state officials for several years about developing a program to highlight the importance of pediatric emergency care, which is markedly different from treating adult patients.
“Whether it’s medications, treatments, exams, everything is altered because of the size of the patient,” he said. “… Additionally, children can be sick and do pretty good until suddenly, they don’t, and then they change and become very sick much more quickly than adults do.”
He added that children who are seriously ill or injured are increasingly being transferred to specific pediatric hospitals, such as those at University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics or Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines, where more specialized care is available.
“Because of that, it’s even more important that we understand how to care for them when they’re in our emergency room and how to stabilize them and prepare for them to get to that next level of care, whether that be up in our own pediatric unit or if we’re having to transfer them to a tertiary center,” Wethal said.
To be recognized in the IPEAC program, hospitals must complete an application that includes requirements for equipment, training and support of pediatric patients and families. State representatives also complete a site visit to the hospital to view equipment and speak with physicians, which occurred at MercyOne earlier this month.
Officials with UnityPoint Health-Finley Hospital in Dubuque said they plan to apply for the IPEAC program when it opens to the rest of Iowa’s 117 hospitals.
“Finley Hospital recognizes the importance of this program and every day, cares for pediatric patients in emergent medical situations,” Jeff Baker, director of the hospital’s emergency and cardiopulmonary departments, wrote in an emailed statement to the Telegraph Herald. “Once this program is beyond the pilot stage and open to additional hospitals, Finley Hospital will look to achieve this designation.”