Nov 9, 2023 3 min read

There are many good causes with their proverbial hands out, seeking money from the federal government. There always will be.

However, The Wall Street Journal, in its Oct. 2 edition, called attention to a need that should spike interest in the mind and heart of every member of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. Additionally, those elected officials should engage in some determined legwork to identify whether the problem on which the Journal focused is indeed a problem – or not – in their particular sphere of representation.

The issue on which the Journal focused in its lengthy October article is hospital emergency rooms’ preparedness for treating children.

“Children are dying in unprepared emergency rooms across America” was the headline that greeted readers that day, followed by the message “Hospitals and regulators have done little to ensure E.R.s are ready to treat children.”

This editorial is not aimed at generating suspicions about care for children at area hospitals. Rather, it is an opportunity for area hospitals – with the Journal report in mind – to tout their expertise and internal expectations and requirements regarding the treating of children. But, if applicable, hospitals of this region that could significantly beef up their services to children – and make additional needed improvements in that line of care – by way of the availability of additional federal and/or state money should join the discussion about such needs.

Consider this quote from the Journal article attributed to state program officials:

“Federal funding to states for improving child emergency care amounts to about $190,000 per state each year – enough to pay for one or two staffers and some free training for hospitals and emergency responders.”

That level of support would be laughable if it were not so serious.

Some people might suggest that hospitals make an adequate or excessive amount of money in their daily treatment of patients. However, most people embracing such viewpoints have hardly a clue about the costs and other challenges affecting hospitals’ ability to deliver outstanding services and the most up-to-date care options – for adults as well as children.

Still, what the Journal reported on Oct. 2 was and is alarming because the article exposed a situation about which few people probably had much or any prior knowledge. Members of Congress need to look closely at the information that the Journal compiled, such as:

• About 1,440 children died from 2012 to 2017 because the emergency rooms that treated them were allegedly not well prepared.
• Hospitals have had little incentive to improve care for children because many government agencies and professional groups have not required action.
• Twenty-five states do not check E.R. pediatric preparedness at all, and even some that do check do not publish names of the hospitals that earned recognition for being prepared.
• Children are four times as likely to die in less-prepared emergency rooms, according to a 2019 study published in the journal Pediatrics. In addition to avoidable deaths, large numbers of children have been left with severe long-term health conditions, according to doctors and researchers.
• The issue of children’s emergency room care needs to be scrutinized all across America like never before.