MyEIF.org Disaster Drill
Education on Disaster Use of a Child Health Summary
Funding period: December 1, 2010-September 29, 2011
Amount of funding: $14,979
Lead Investigator: Lee A. Pyles, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine, University of Minnesota School of Medicine.
Co-investigators: Susan A. Berry, MD, Professor of Pediatrics; Kirstin McAdams Kim, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota School of Medicine
U-SEEE Focus Area Addressed: Research to assess the effectiveness of public health preparedness and response simulation games which are role-based and capability-linked to self-efficacy expectations, knowledge, skills, and/or response performance.
Project Abstract:
Disasters inordinately affect children as a result of their dependence upon adults who have additional responsibilities and priorities aside from the children. Children with Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN), who require services and resources at a level above the usual child population, are affected at an even higher level than other children. This research has an overall goal to test training and performance of potential disaster health care providers and families of CSHCN in the disaster response for special needs children. Families and Children enrolled in the Midwest Emergency Medical Services for Children Information System (www.memscis.org; recently renamed MyEIF.org, meaning Emergency Information Form) will participate along with unenrolled parents and health care providers in a disaster simulation designed to train providers to use the MyEIF.org system, to educate parents regarding how to prepare for disasters that could affect their special needs child, and to test responsiveness and flexibility of the web-based emergency health record system. The five specific aims include: 1) educate emergency physicians, pediatricians and nurses at the University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital and an Alternate Care Site to access patient records in the MyEIF.org system utilizing “Just-in-Time” training on the day of the disaster drill; 2) educate parents of CSHCN regarding how to prepare medically to respond to a disaster; 3) conduct a disaster simulation exercise in which enrolled and unenrolled parents and children report to a simulated emergency department or Alternate Care Center with a scripted scenario of psychosocial and medical problems that are related to or complicated by their actual health history; 4) conduct evaluation of the simulation including parental and provider feelings of competence, satisfaction and comfort with the interaction and adequacy of information; and 5) measure the percentage of families that join MyEIF.org or update their existing record within 3 weeks of the simulation. Analysis will examine changes in knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes through pre/post-test surveys of the parents and providers in the simulation exercise.