Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC) is a federal program designed to reduce pediatric morbidity and mortality as a result of severe injury and illness. EMSC was first established in the 1980s. Housed under the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau, provides competitive grant funding for state wide initiatives and pediatric research. Between 1996
and 2005 Indiana EMSC worked with the state EMS commission to standardize and update pediatric equipment for BLS and ALS provider transport vehicles, partnered with the Kiwanis to deploy Broselow equipped bags, and provided multiple novel educational opportunities for prehospital providers. However, due to lack of funding, the program ceased to exist in 2005. In 2006 the Institute of Medicine (IOM) publishes “Growing Pains” citing pediatric patients comprising 27% of emergency visits; however, many hospitals and EMS agencies were not well equipped to handle pediatric patients. Indiana has 1,577,629 children between the ages of 0-17 years of age, comprising 25% of it’s population. IEMSC was restablished with state partnership grant funding in 2009 under the direction of Dr. Elizabeth Weinstein.
