Developing Pediatric Emergency Preparedness Performance Measures

The most obvious deficiency in the current evaluation of disaster response is the lack of objective, quantifiable measures of performance. This frequently leads to assessments that are highly subjective depending on the evaluator, does not provide those who are planning with targets to achieve, and does not allow for measures that they have improved their preparedness. The goal of this article is to offer recommendations for government agencies at the federal, regional, and local levels, public health departments, and health care institutions to aid in the development of pediatric emergency management performance measures. This will be achieved through the application of traditional quality principles to the assessment of emergencymanagement efforts and to the use of innovative analytic methodologies to develop comprehensive approaches to performance measurement in emergency management.