Because of unbelievable advances in drugs during the last 50 years, the variety of youngsters residing with advanced medical situations has elevated, permitting them to reside longer and stay of their properties with their households. While general, youngsters with advanced medical situations are a minority of the inhabitants, they do make up many interactions with the healthcare system, each with our prehospital suppliers (paramedics and EMT’s) and our hospital suppliers.
We know that these youngsters have individualized care plans and that their households know greatest on the subject of caring for them. That’s why we take part within the STARS (Special Needs Tracking and Awareness Response System) program at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
STARS is a one-of-a-kind program designed to enhance medical care for youngsters with advanced medical wants. By creating personalised emergency care plans designed particularly for EMS and Emergency Department (ED) workers, we make sure that well timed and acceptable care is given to our most advanced sufferers in probably the most emergent of occasions. The program additionally permits us to be ready for the surprising and to be aware of the number of not-so-common ailments and problems, which, in flip, permits EMS and ED suppliers to really feel extra comfy and efficient when caring for sufferers with advanced medical situations.
With this system, every affected person is given a STARS lanyard with their quantity that’s communicated to EMS businesses and our Emergency Department, permitting our suppliers to visualise these care plans forward of time and put together for environment friendly remedy. Families verbalize their “STARS number,” which is their identifier, to 911 dispatch, and our suppliers instantly begin getting ready to look after the affected person.
Currently, there are over 1,000 sufferers enrolled within the STARS program by over 100 totally different ambulance businesses spanning three states. We enroll numerous sufferers with advanced medical situations, together with tracheostomy and residential ventilator dependence, sufferers on residence hospice or with particular end-of-life plans, neurologic problems, atypical seizures, or these with particular seizure plans, genetic problems, cerebral shunts, cardiac problems, and extra. It is at all times an absolute pleasure to care for our most advanced sufferers and their great households at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
If you have an interest in enrolling your little one within the STARS program, please contact our STARS EMS Coordinator, Gina Pellerito, at [email protected].