Pediatric disaster triage education and skills assessment: a coalition approach.

Objective: This study aims to 1) demonstrate one method of pediatric disaster preparedness education using a regional disaster coalition organized workshop and 2) evaluate factors reflecting the greatest shortfall in pediatric mass casualty incident (MCI) triage skills in a varied population of medical providers in King County, WA.

Design: Educational intervention and cross-sectional survey.

Setting: Pediatric disaster preparedness conference created de novo and offered by the King County Healthcare Coalition, with didactic sessions and workshops including a scored mock pediatric MCI triage.

Participants: Ninety-eight providers from throughout the King County, WA, region selected by their own institutions following invitation to participate, with 88 completing exit surveys.

Interventions: Didactic lectures regarding pediatric MCI triage followed by scored exercises.

Main Outcome Measures: Mock triage scores were analyzed and compared according to participant characteristics and workplace environment.

Results: A half-day regional pediatric disaster preparedness educational conference convened in September 2011 by the King County Healthcare Coalition in partnership with regional pediatric experts was so effective and well-received that it has been rescheduled yearly (2012 and 2013) and has expanded to three Washington State venues sponsored by the Washington State Department of Health. Emergency department (ED) or intensive care unit (ICU) employment and regular exposure to pediatric patients best predicted higher mock pediatric MCI triage scores (ED/ICU 80 percent vs non-ED/ICU 73 percent, p = 0.026; regular pediatric exposure 80 percent vs less exposure 77 percent, p = 0.038, respectively). Pediatric Advanced Life Support training was not found to be associated with improved triage performance, and mock patients whose injuries were not immediately life threatening tended to be over-triaged (observed trend).

Conclusions: A regional coalition can effectively organize member hospitals and provide education for focused populations using specialty experts such as pediatricians. Providers working in higher acuity environments and those with regular pediatric patient exposure perform better mock pediatric MCI triage than their counterparts after just-in-time training. Pediatric MCI patients with less than life-threatening injuries tended to be over-triaged.