Pediatric Long-Term Care Disaster and Pandemic Planning

Abstract

Introduction:Children are frequently victims of disasters. However, significant gaps remain in pediatric disaster preparedness planning. This includes a lack of planning for pediatric residents in long-term care facilities. The New York City (NYC) Pediatric Disaster Coalition (PDC) is funded by the New York City (NYC) Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) to improve NYC’s pediatric disaster preparedness and response. The NYC PDC partnered with experts in pediatric disaster management and the care of pediatric residents in long-term care facilities to create the Pediatric Long-Term Care Planning Committee (PLTCPC).Method:The PLTCPC included physicians, nurses, administrators, and emergency planning experts. The PLTCPC’s goal was to create guidelines and templates for use in disaster planning for pediatric residents at long-term care facilities. The committee met bi-weekly over three months and shared facility resources to create tools that meet the specific challenges presented by this population.Results:Utilizing an iterative process that included a literature review, participant presentations, review and improvement of the working documents, the final guidelines and templates for surge and evacuation of pediatric residents in long-term care facilities were created. Due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NYC PDC reconvened the PLTCPC to focus on surge planning for pandemics at pediatric long-term care facilities. Two pediatric infectious disease clinicians were added to the committee. Utilizing the same process delineated above, a detailed pandemic specific annex was created based on clinical pediatric experience gained throughout the pandemic.Conclusion:To the authors' knowledge, these are the first pediatric-specific resources for long-term care disaster planning. They address the importance of matching resources to the unique needs of PLTC facilities, in regard to space, equipment, staffing, and training. Pediatric long-term care facilities present special needs during pandemics and this approach can be utilized as a model for other facilities.