GLEN JEAN, W.Va. — More efforts are being made to advance emergency medical care for the Mountain State’s youngest residents.
The West Virginia Department of Health has been host to the West Virginia EMS for Children Pediatric Symposium for three days, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday that brought in emergency medical service professionals from both in-state and across the country to discuss the ways they can ensure pediatric patients receive the highest standard of care in emergency situations.
Participants of the three-day symposium were expected to gain critical skills and knowledge to better serve children in the state through a series of workshops, keynote presentations and interactive sessions.
Director of the Offices of Emergency Medical Services Jody Ratliff said the event was not only focusing on providing the health and well-being to children in the state, but the EMS personnel who serve them.
“It really comes down to two different things, and that’s education for pediatric emergencies which we badly need in the state, but also focusing on the mental health for providers in the state for the EMS providers,” said Ratliff.
As it’s difficult but integral work EMS personnel do to provide emergency services to children, West Virginia recently secured additional resources to enhance mental health support for first responders.
Ratliff said because pediatric emergencies are fortunately not happening at a high volume in the state, it does make it more difficult for EMS to keep up with the individualized skill sets it requires.
“When we have this opportunity, like we do right now, to bring in the experts to really hound in those skills, that’s a really good thing, so when we do get those pediatric calls, the providers are a lot more comfortable with what they’re doing, they are a lot more confident with what they’re doing, and so we have better outcomes for the pediatric patients because of that,” he said.
This year, the Department of Health decided to expand the symposium from one day to a multi-day event. Ratliff said with that, they were also expanding the content being provided at the event.
He said the classes being held this year are specifically educating EMS providers on patient care in children, while before they had addressed pediatric emergencies on a broader scale.
“We want to give them every tool we can possibly give them, educate them to the best of our ability we can possibly educate them to provide that care, so this symposium is a little bit different this year where we really focused in on patient care of these kids,” said Ratliff.
The annual symposium was held at the Boy Scouts of America’s Summit Bechtel Reserve in Fayette County this year.