UC Davis Children's Hospital offers PACES (Pediatric Acute Care Education Sessions), peer-to-peer virtual webinars and roundtable discussions to support clinicians who care for pediatric patients at community hospitals.
These sessions provide education and clinical guidelines for treatment of pediatric patients with COVID-19 and support the wellness of health care providers dealing with the effects of COVID-19.
"These roundtable discussions have strengthened connections between UC Davis Children's Hospital and our community hospital providers," says Leah Tzimenatos, M.D., chief of pediatric emergency medicine at UC Davis Children's Hospital. "Discussion topics have included personal protective equipment updates, multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children clinical guidelines, physician morale and wellness."
Tzimenatos leads the PACES program with Heather McKnight, M.D., chief of pediatric hospital medicine at UC Davis Children's Hospital. "We continue to learn from the challenges, successes and best practices at each site," says McKnight. "We also have been able to share common experiences and support each other during this unprecedented time."
PACES started as a free program for community partners in 2019, and in addition to discussion about COVID-19, the program provides continuing medical education credits on topics such as asthma, bronchiolitis, diabetic ketoacidosis and head trauma.
"PACES provides easy access to up-to-date information for rural health centers," said Mary Sneeringer, M.D., director of pediatrics at Barton Memorial Hospital in South Lake Tahoe, California. "The presentations are helpful to bedside nurses, respiratory therapists, pediatricians, emergency room physicians, surgeons and anyone who is the first point of contact for these patients but does not care for pediatric patients every day."
