Improving Hospital Preparedness for Pediatric Abductions

Introduction: In the United States, 840,000 children are reported missing annually. While no concise data is available on incidence from healthcare facilities, infant and child abductions elopement events pose a high risk to infants hospital staff. Following an update policy at tertiary care in New York, hospital’s emergency preparedness team conducted full-scale drill. The drill included input participation administration, nursing, police, pediatric department. Method: updates which had not been tested before were evaluated during this drill, including plain language verbiage activate code, process of alerting police patient, response, response staff their work areas. Inpatient wards, department, outpatient clinics given teaching about new responsibilities event or infant. Evaluators pre-selected placed throughout hospital. Afterward, controllers de-briefed with each evaluators as well personnel areas that did receive policy. Results: in-person training wanted assist but know how respond follow protocol for securing Furthermore, identified where overhead paging system gaps staffing cover key exit points. Conclusion: This revealed all need dedicated personalized highlighting roles communication lines be tested, plans address concurrent clinical emergencies formulated.