Lutheran ED earns kid-friendly COPPER status
After a thorough, on-site review of our Emergency Department’s readiness and capabilities for treating pediatric patients, the state’s Colorado Pediatric Preparedness for the Emergency Room program, known as COPPER, identified Lutheran as a Pediatric Advanced facility and awarded us the highest score in the state: 99/100!
We reached out to Dan Cheek, MD, Lutheran’s Trauma and EMS liaison and Pediatric Emergency Care coordinator and asked him what this designation means for our community’s kids and the care we provide them.
Q: Why do you feel the COPPER designation is important?
A: “The process of reviewing how we care of our smallest patients is just as important as how we approach our older patients. We are a community hospital and, as such, need to provide the highest level of care for all ages who might walk into our ER. This is true particularly for our sickest patients. But for pediatrics, we have limited exposure to sick kids. We only see about five to 10 children a day in our busy department and when they come in, we need to be prepared. We need to make certain that we have the right equipment, the right education and the right quality-improvement process to keep up to date with pediatric care.
“The COPPER process helps elevate our standard level of care to a level of expert pediatric care. Data show that following COPPER guidelines can and will save young lives. Studies have shown that hospitals with a pediatric readiness score of 88 or higher (our score was 99/100) can reduce mortality risk by up to 76% for ill children and 60% for pediatric trauma patients. Furthermore, the COPPER designation is an indicator to our EMS colleagues that we are prepared to handle their most vulnerable patients as an optimal receiving facility. The other advantage to this process is encompassing a team approach that involves practitioners, nurses and techs, so that we are all comfortable with pediatric care.”
Q: What work needed to be done at Lutheran to secure this designation?
A: “A ton of work went into assessing our current practices, looking at and updating our current pediatric resuscitation equipment and guidelines. We initiated a more universal process of weighing all of our patients in kilograms for standard weight-based management. We also implemented a process for obtaining a full set of vital signs in every pediatric patient to help identify abnormal vitals that might indicate more serious illness.”
Q: Whom would you like to recognize for this achievement?
A: “A huge shoutout to Ali Young, RN. She single-handedly put a ton of effort into this process, helping us get ready for our kids. I would also like to thank Margaret Durnford, RN, for her work with Ali to make this happen, along with support from our nurse manager, Sarah Malacaria, RN. I also want to recognize hospital leadership and ER director Dave Leventhal, MD, for their support and encouragement to get this accomplished.
“We do our best to manage what comes through the ED doors at Lutheran to the best of our ability but we heavily rely on our hospital colleagues to help us out. We greatly appreciate the other hospital specialties, the trauma team, the orthopedic team, internal medicine, infectious disease and our pediatric colleagues a phone call away. We could not be the best without all of this support and it is greatly appreciated.”
Q: How would you describe the quality of care offered in Lutheran's ED today?
A: “I am proud to say that I think the care at Lutheran is exceptional, and a lot of work has been done and continues to be done to make us the best care center for kids, toddlers, teens, young adults and senior adults alike. From sepsis to strokes, from myocardial infarctions to trauma, I feel that we continue to excel in all things emergency medicine and I would be proud and happy to bring my family here.”
Why Pediatric Readiness matters
Pediatric QI is an integral part of Pediatric Readiness, which can improve clinical care and outcomes for children nationwide.
85% of children are seen in general EDs across the United States.
Only 50% of general EDs engage in pediatric QI.
As stated above, there’s a 76% potential mortality-risk reduction among children treated in EDs with high Pediatric Readiness.
Learn more about these stats and the benefits of Pediatric Readiness from these sources: JAMA, National Pediatric Readiness Quality Initiative and Children’s National Hospital.
About the COPPER program
Hospitals can earn one of two designations through the COPPER program: Pediatric Prepared and Pediatric Advanced. Lutheran earned the latter as a result of building and strengthening all key components below.
Establishment of dedicated nurse and physician Pediatric Emergency Care Coordinators
Annual pediatric education and competency requirements for ED staff
Strong collaboration with US Acute Care Solutions physicians and Intermountain Health facilities
Quality-improvement initiatives for both nursing and physician teams
Staff-led design of pediatric skills days
Integration of pediatric education into all training sessions
Joint mass casualty and surge planning with local hospitals
Active engagement from departments including NICU, Chaplaincy, Anesthesiology and more
Ongoing enhancements to emergency management plans to better serve children
Physicians with questions about Lutheran’s COPPER designation can reach out to Cheek via email.