In recent years, attention has been given to disaster preparedness for first responders and first receivers (hospitals). One such focus involves the decontamination of individuals who have fallen victim to a chemical agent from an attack or an accident involving hazardous materials. Children often are overlooked in disaster planning. Children are vulnerable and have specific medical and psychological requirements. There is a need to develop specific protocols to address pediatric patients who require decontamination at the entrance of hospital emergency departments. Currently, there are no published resources that meet this need. An expert panel convened by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene developed policies and procedures for the decontamination of pediatric patients.The panel was comprised of experts from a variety of medical and psychosocial areas.Using an iterative process, the panel created guidelines that were approved by the stakeholders and are presented in this paper.These guidelines must be utilized, studied, and modified to increase the likelihood that they will work during an emergency situation.
Background: The Public Access Defibrillation (PAD) Trial was a randomized, controlled trial designed to measure survival to hospital discharge following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OOH-CA) in community facilities trained and equipped to provide PAD, compared with community facilities trained to provide cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) without any capacity for defibrillation. Objectives: To report the implementation of community-based lay responder emergency response programs in 1,260 participating facilities recruited for the PAD Trial in the United States and Canada. Methods: This was a descriptive study of the characteristics of participating facilities, volunteers, and automated external defibrillator (AED) placements compiled by the PAD Trial, and a qualitative study of factors that facilitated or impeded implementation of emergency lay responder programs using focus groups of PAD Trial site coordinators. Results: The PAD Trial enrolled 1,260 community facilities (14.8% residential), with 20,400 lay volunteers (mean 6 standard deviation = 13.4 6 10.7 per facility)
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