These resources will help EMS personnel increase weight documentation and rapidly assess correct medication dosing and equipment sizes for their pediatric patients. Thanks to a generous funding opportunity from Cars Curing Kids, part of this initiative includes providing all 1,970 ambulances and emergency medical responder (EMR) groups in the state with a retractable, Broselow-compatible weight measuring tape and a corresponding reference card. Wisconsin Emergency Medical Services for Children (WI EMSC) has launched a quality improvement project focused on improving weight estimate accuracy and increasing the proportion of pediatric EMS encounters with documentation of estimated weight in kilograms.
This process also takes critical time away from managing the patient, and can lead to medication dosing errors. Due to the unpredictability of the prehospital setting, these calculations are done quickly in highly stressful and chaotic situations. From there, EMS personnel convert a weight measured in pounds to kilograms, then calculate a weight-appropriate dose, which can be taxing. EMS personnel must then rely on family member reports, visual estimates, or references based on age or height. Depending on the child’s age and status, they may be unable to communicate their weight to providers. While accurate weight estimates are critical in determining medication dosages for pediatric patients, estimating a child’s weight can be very challenging. Added stress comes from medication administration, as all pediatric medications are weight-based and require weight-based dosing calculations, which can be difficult in the highly charged clinical situations.
Broselow tape education code#
And our mock code drills have proven to us the idea's value in speeding our response to an emergency. It's obvious that the wristband manufacturers were thinking about the possibility, since their products' colors nicely matched the charts. The color-coded ID wristbands are an idea I'd seen at another surgery center while visiting as a surveyor, but I implemented it at my own as soon as I got back. Since the information on the tapes and charts is in very small print, we've also copied the details in larger type on color-coded sheets, which we've placed in every pediatric cart alongside the color-coded emergency procedure packs.
Our nurses find out each patient's height and weight during pre-op phone calls and verify the information against their most recent history and physical form, so they're color-coded when they arrive on the day of surgery. They're valuable reference tools, but in a crisis situation, the last thing you need to worry about is locating the tape or measuring the patient.Īt our surgery center, we prepare for any such emergency by putting color-coded ID wristbands on our pediatric patients that correspond to their measurements on the tape.
If your facility sees pediatric patients, you're probably familiar with the Broselow measuring tape or similar color-coded charts that calculate, based on a child's height and weight, the amounts of rescue drugs and the sizes of supplies needed to respond to laryngospasm, tachycardia, malignant hyperthermia or other surgical emergencies. COLORS FOR KIDS Color-coded ID bands speed response in rescue situations.Ĭolor-Coded Wristbands Prepare You for Pediatric Codes
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