History

Established in 1984, the federal Emergency Medical Services for Children program works in partnership with States, communities, medical institutions, public-private partners, and families to enhance the capability and capacity of EMS systems to manage the emergency medical needs of children in the areas of prevention, pre-hospital EMS care, hospital-based care, rehabilitation and re-entry of the child into the community. The program is administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration's Maternal and Child Health Bureau.

National Resource Center

The federal EMS for Children program established a National Resource Center (NRC) in 1991, with the goal of reducing the disparities between emergency treatment of children and adults across the nation.

Innovation & Improvement Center

In July 2016, HRSA EMSC took a new direction away from the NRC and towards the Emergency Medical Services for Children Innovation and Improvement Center (EIIC). The EIIC is housed at Texas Children's Hospital (TCH) and Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in Houston, Texas.

Collaborating partner organizations include the Emergency Nurses Association, the National Association of State EMS Officials, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American College of Emergency Physicians. The EIIC will utilize a clinical systems integration framework to provide the emergency care community with training, support, and tools to use quality improvement methodology in order to reduce morbidity and mortality in children.

The EIIC focuses on accelerating improvements in quality of care and outcomes for children who are in need of urgent or emergency care through an infrastructure that ensures routine, integrated coordination of quality improvement activities between key stakeholder organizations and their champions. Through its efforts, the EIIC hopes to demonstrate how leveraging quality improvement science, the experiential knowledge at TCH and BCM, and the expertise of multiple professional societies and federal organizations, can improve and transform health care outcomes for children in the United States.