Laura Simon and Laura Bond
14 minutes ago
LAKE ST. LOUIS, Mo. – With approximately 20 percent of emergency room patients being pediatric, SSM Health emergency rooms are staffed by doctors and nurses from Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital 24/7 across all hospital locations.
Specifically, SSM Health St. Joseph Hospital in Lake St. Louis is an active participant in the National Pediatric Readiness Project (NPRP) to ensure hospital emergency departments are prepared to care for pediatric patients.
Dr. Timothy Stead is the site director for Glennon Care Pediatrics and medical director for the Missouri EMSC PEEC program, and is an EMSC National Pediatric Preparedness Project (NPRP) specialist.
Stead said one in five patients who come to St. Joseph Hospital in Lake St. Louis is a pediatric patient.
“We have the training, the skills and the compassion to help families get through these situations,” he said.
Glennon’s care team can treat any emergency, from the most common ones like cuts and broken bones to more serious issues that may require hospitalization.
Stead says joining the NPRP demonstrates a commitment to ensuring the best outcomes for patients.
“The National Pediatric Healthcare Readiness Project is run by a national group called Children’s Emergency Medical Services. It’s a government-funded program that ensures pediatric health care readiness and quality care in all 5,000 community hospitals across the country,” he said. “The goal of the Readiness Project is to improve pediatric health care readiness everywhere, from the smallest hospitals to the largest. We’ve been an active participant in this project since 2017.”
SSM Health St. Joseph Hospital in Lake St. Louis has received the Pediatric Emergency Care Excellence (PEEC) designation from Children’s Health Services of Missouri, becoming just the second pediatric emergency department in Missouri to be recognized.
“This is a big thing. Many states, including Missouri, have now certified their hospitals as pediatric-ready,” Stead said.
To learn more about the pediatric emergency and trauma services provided by physicians at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, click here.
The SSM Health Medical Minute airs Wednesdays at 7pm on News 11 and 9pm on FOX 2 News.
