Due to unimaginable 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 houses with their households. Whereas total, 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 all know that these youngsters have individualized care plans and that their households know greatest in terms of caring for them. That’s why we take part within the STARS (Particular Wants Monitoring and Consciousness Response System) program at St. Louis Kids’s Hospital.
STARS is a one-of-a-kind program designed to enhance medical care for youngsters with advanced medical wants. By creating customized emergency care plans designed particularly for EMS and Emergency Division (ED) workers, we be sure that well timed and applicable care is given to our most advanced sufferers in probably the most emergent of instances. This system additionally permits us to be ready for the surprising and to be aware of the number of not-so-common ailments and issues, which, in flip, permits EMS and ED suppliers to really feel extra snug 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 companies and our Emergency Division, permitting our suppliers to visualise these care plans forward of time and put together for environment friendly therapy. Households verbalize their “STARS quantity,” which is their identifier, to 911 dispatch, and our suppliers instantly begin getting ready to look after the affected person.
At the moment, there are over 1,000 sufferers enrolled within the STARS program by means of over 100 totally different ambulance companies spanning three states. We enroll varied sufferers with advanced medical situations, together with tracheostomy and residential ventilator dependence, sufferers on residence hospice or with particular end-of-life plans, neurologic issues, atypical seizures, or these with particular seizure plans, genetic issues, cerebral shunts, cardiac issues, and extra. It’s at all times an absolute pleasure to maintain our most advanced sufferers and their fantastic households at St. Louis Kids’s Hospital.
If you’re enthusiastic about enrolling your baby within the STARS program, please contact our STARS EMS Coordinator, Gina Pellerito, at [email protected].
