A National Effort Requiring Local Solutions: Regionalization of Pediatric Emergency Care

Regionalization of pediatric emergency care is a necessary and enormous task assigned to Emergency Medical Services for Children. One of the founders of medical regionalization, perinatology, has experienced difficulties over the past decade maintaining the structure and systems that had so dramatically improved patient care. Pediatric trauma regionalization, as a component of pediatric emergency care as well as adult trauma care, is foreseeing similar degradation of their system if key issues are not addressed soon. Pediatric emergency care, under the leadership of Emergency Medical Services for Children, is seeking to build strong and sustainable systems of regionalization as the next step toward improving access to high-quality emergency and definitive care for children of all ages throughout the United States.