UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Supports Efforts to Urge Congress to Address Children’s Physical and Mental Health Care Needs in Planning for Future Pandemics and Disasters

WASHINGTON, D.C. – University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital (UH Rainbow) and the Children’s Hospital Association (CHA) urges Congress and the Administration to address the unique physical and mental health needs of children in future pandemic and disaster planning after a recent spate of public health crises which exposed critical gaps in care and stretched the pediatric workforce, medications and supplies to a breaking point.

CHA, which represents more than 200 children’s hospitals across the country, will host a Capitol Hill event today highlighting the unique pediatric medical devices and supplies that are used during pandemics and disease surges, as Congress considers reauthorizing the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA), which is slated to expire on September 30, 2023.

CHA also released a report entitled, Children’s Healthcare Needs in a Pandemic, Disaster, or Emergency Response: A National Blueprint for Pediatric-Specific Readiness, that provides recommendations on how to ensure children’s physical and mental health care needs are considered in future planning for pandemics and disasters.

Children’s hospitals experienced unprecedented pediatric visits during ‘The Tripledemic’ of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza, and COVID-19 cases, which was heightened by the ongoing children’s mental health crisis.

In 2021, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) awarded UH Rainbow more than $48 million to establish a Regional Pediatric Pandemic Network that supports the planning and preparation of child healthcare facilities to respond to global health threats, including pandemics, and support communities in everyday pediatric readiness. This was the largest grant UH Rainbow has received in its history.

Charles G. Macias, MD, MPH, Chief, Pediatric Emergency Medicine and Chief Quality Officer at UH Rainbow, leads the HRSA supported Regional Pediatric Pandemic Network. “We began this work before the global pandemic, and 2020 proved how important it is for hospitals, health care infrastructures, government and private entities to work together to create a coordinated emergency response model,” says Dr. Macias.

“Children and youth represent nearly 25% of the U.S. population. Their physical and mental health needs and the delivery system to meet them differs significantly from those of adults,” says Amy Wimpey Knight, President of CHA. “As we plan for future pandemics and disasters, we must ensure that children, youth and their unique needs are kept front and center so they may have access to necessary resources in times of crises.”

With the pending reauthorization of the PAHPA, CHA is calling on policymakers to take action in four key areas to address children’s unique needs during a pandemic or other public health emergencies:

1. Strengthen the pediatric pandemic response infrastructure to ensure all hospitals – not just children’s hospitals – have capacity and resources to provide critical pediatric services during emergencies.
2. Invest in pediatric staffing recruitment and retention initiatives, such as the Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education (CHGME) program, to prevent future shortages in the pediatric workforce.
3. Focus on boosting access to pediatric medical equipment and rapid response abilities to meet pediatric needs in advance of the next public health emergency. For example, Congress should look at investing in nursing and allied health training, recruitment and retention and ensure age-appropriate delivery formulations and dosages of pediatric medications and related supplies are quickly accessible via the Strategic National Stockpile, as well as prioritize medical countermeasures for pediatrics.
4. Develop a plan to provide timely access to mental health care services to children during pandemics and other public health emergencies, including investing in the growth of the pediatric mental health workforce.

CHA partnered with FTI Consulting to survey children’s hospital experts to better understand the challenges children’s hospitals have faced in delivering care during past pandemics and disasters. Some key highlights from the survey include:

• Workforce shortages were the top challenge for children’s hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic and RSV surges, with 91% of respondents citing shortages of nurses, 79% citing shortages of respiratory therapists and 77%, mental health providers.
• Medication and related supply shortages were the second most common challenge children’s hospitals faced, with 63% of respondents saying pediatric-specific supplies ran critically low, and measures to alleviate supply shortages were insufficient and geared toward adults.
• Of particular concern was that the mental health of both children and health care providers was overlooked, with 86% of respondents citing boarding (when a patient cannot be sent home from the emergency department (ED) or transferred to another facility for further treatment because there are no available beds, so they must wait in the ED for an unspecified amount of time) as a key challenge in delivering mental health care, and 84% saying workforce shortages impacted the delivery of pediatric mental health care during the COVID-19 and RSV surges.

Additional resources on child-appropriate disaster and pandemic responses can be found here.