By Rear Adm. Wanda D. Barfield, M.D., M.P.H., FAAP and Steven E. Krug, M.D., FAAP
A new AAP clinical report can help health care providers and hospitals better prepare for disasters that could impact neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). The report reviews disasters that have affected NICUs in the U.S. and examines how organizing concepts of mass critical care in pediatrics can be applied to the NICU.
The report Disaster Preparedness in Neonatal Intensive Care Units, from the AAP Committee on Fetus and Newborn and the Disaster Preparedness Advisory Council, is available [here] and will be published in the May issue of Pediatrics.
Information is provided to help neonatologists and other NICU care providers and administrative leaders apply organizing concepts to develop response plans within their units, hospitals, health care systems and geographic regions. The guidance builds on AAP policies concerning children in disasters, with a focus on the extremely vulnerable NICU population. It reviews ethical issues related to surge capacity, altered care standards, and atypical locations of care, evacuation, triage and transport.
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