Opinions on emergency situations....What's your Emergency plan??

Ok I am openning in July and feel quite ready and confident in all areas accept for the dreaded "emergency situation" I have my first aid and cpr. When my son was in a home daycare the emergency plan was to call 911, call guardians and send the child in ambulance with all health and contact info so that the guardians could meet at the hospital and the caregiver would stay at the home with the other children...I hate the thought of sending a toddler or baby for that matter to a hospital via ambulance with no one they know........In my opinion this is the only way though as parents no longer want a daycare provider driving their children around these days (from speaking with friends and other care providers I have gathered that) and it would waste precious time and risk driving in panic mode with a van full of kids who don't really comprehend what's going on....Opinions please, should I go with my gut and follow the rules that I learned from others? Thanks for any experience or opinions as this is so so important. Note that I am obviously one of the home daycares that does not believe in driving around with other people's children because of all the insensitive drivers out in the world today. I am fortunate to have things of interest in safe walking distance.

Erinn :unsure:

As a daycare provider: Although I have my first Aid and CPR in am not a nurse or a Dr., I would call an ambulance. As they are better equipped to handle the emergency. (I would do what I could until they got there). I would call the parents/emergency contacts, who ever answers the phone first, gets to meet the child at the hospital.

As a parent: I would be mad if the provider drove my hurt child to the hospital. You would be wasting valuable time, dealing with the other children, and since the provider is not trained as a nurse or a dr. might inadvertently cause more damage. If my child was not the one hurt, I would still be pissed off, that the provider took my child to a hospital exposing him to sights/sound and germs that I don't want him around at this age. Who knows what the children will see or hear. Also how can you watch the health children when you are dealing with a hurt child.

This is all just my views on the topic.

I have a vehicle equiped to transport all my daycare children and permission to do so - howver my plan is the same - if a child needs emergency medical care they go via ambulance alone - that is a pretty standard practice even in centre care it was made clear the child would likey go alone because ratios had to be met at all times including emergencies ...besides how would I properly supervise the other kids if I did follow along in the van - in that scenario the child needs 1 on 1 and a family member to get there to give it ... my clients give me two additional emergency contacts in addition to themselves someone should easily be there at hospital to meet the child leaving me at home to provide service to the remaining.

If it was my own family member I would call all my clients to pick up ASAP and then head over as soon as I could - that is downside if this job we cannot just leave it and run :(

So we sound like we're on the same page, Thanks for the opinion Valerie!

Thanks for your thoughts too Reggio, I had mentioned this to a friend when my son was in his home daycare and she was totally against the child going alone. It really is the only way and provides immediate care when it's needed....We all have to be prepared for situations that we don't want as unfortunately they do happen regardless of how precautious we are with the kids. Thanks ~

I don't drive my daycare children anywhere, so parents all know that in case of emergency, the ambulance would take their child to the hospital to be met by parents there. I am not going to take responsibility for driving children somewhere, wasting time getting them dressed and into car seats, and risk something serious happening to the sick child because of the time delay in getting medical help. That's what I would want someone to do for my child. Sorry the child has to go alone without me or a parent, but that's the least of my worries in a medical emergency.

exactly :) If a parent doen't agree with that plan they can find someone else.

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exactly If a parent doen't agree with that plan they can find someone else.

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That right. I go over everything in my interview, so that the parents are clear. I even let then know that their child comes first and I will only call them when it is safe for me to do so. ex: if I have to hold a child's leg to stop the bleeding, I call 911, but the parents will have to wait for a phone call until the pediatrics say I can remove my hand. I would also make sure that the other children when safe and accounted for before I call the parents. The Children come first. The Parents come 2nd.

If a child needs emergency care then 911 of course must be called. It will probably be better if the child was soley in the care of the paramedics during the trip to the hospital as it would be a horrific emotional time for the parent and the child would be focused on wanting parent instead of being open to the reassurance and care of the paramedics who are trained of course to deal with all ages in distress.

Honestly in 25 years of working in childcare and 17 of those were in large centre care with a much higher statistical probability of incident occurring only TWICE have I seen an ambulance have to be called and the one time the parent got to the daycare before the ambulance and was able to ride with their kid ~ both those times were for EMERGENCY HEALTH reasons as the child in question was having a seizure out of the blue and we could not 'wait' for the parent to get there to figure out why so 911 got called .... one was from a fever that rose over 105 undetected by staff it came on that fast and the other the child ended up having epilepsy :( but the point is the probability of ever having to USE your emergency policy is VERY SLIM but it is imperative to have it for sure just to avoid any panic or conflict at how it was handled after the fact cause it is all 'clear' for clients!

Most of the times when an 'accident' occurs in a program it is not 'life threatening' so there is time to call the parent and have them come and pick up the children to 'get something checked out' just to be safe but nothing in a life threatening manner that an ambulance had to be called.

Honestly yes children trip and fall and get bumps because they are learning to master their physical self and make errors in judgement but in the 6 years I have been working from home I have only had two accidents that truly needed 'first aid' and a heads up phone call to the parent and they were from the SAME kid whose parents refused to get her proper shoes and let her wear 'flip flop kitten shoes' to daycare and well twice she tripped on them and smacked her head and got a nasty bump/bruise as a result!

Erinn, the emergency procedure you outlined is exactly the plan I have in place. I hope, hope, hope it never happens, but if a child has to go to the hospital the paramedics are the best people to be caring for them. And we have to care for all the other children who would most certainly be upset and need lots of attention if something bad happened in front of them. The parents have to be responsible to meet their sick child at the hospital.

This seems like an easy one to answer, and you already know what to do! IF you had an emergency that required immediate medical attention, there is NO WAY possible, you alone could take care of that child, dress properly and strap into a care seat, and dress and strap all other children in care, commute to the hospital, safely secure the other children while getting the little one in distress to the ER, or unstrap all, unload from car, get hurt child in with all others and care for everyone properly. Your ONLY option in an emergency situation is to follow a written plan of: call 911, secure the child (administer cpr, first aid, etc.) call next of kin for child, call emergency care giver for help, make sure all other children are safe and accounted for. That in itself can be daunting. I couldn't imagine attempting to transport that child and all others to the ER. Not to mention, couldn't there be more liability involved if you chose to take into your own hands? what if the parents sued you for taking too long to get to hospitol or what if you get into an accident on your way? too many what ifs....stay home call 911, care for the child until the ambulance, notify parents and keep all other kids calm and cared for. That's your job!

You guys are amazing! Thanks for the reassurance :)

What I would do is have a neighbour/friend of mine who i know and trust to be my emerg back up. As a parent I would not want my child alone and scared in an ambulance. If a child needed 911 I would go with them in the ambulance and have my Emerg back up come and stay with the other children in my home until their parents could pick up (I would call all those parents for early pick up.) Also a police officer or firefighter will stay with the children until back up or parents are there. Just my opinion hopefully it is never needed!!!

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Originally Posted by kassiemom

What I would do is have a neighbour/friend of mine who i know and trust to be my emerg back up. As a parent I would not want my child alone and scared in an ambulance. If a child needed 911 I would go with them in the ambulance and have my Emerg back up come and stay with the other children in my home until their parents could pick up (I would call all those parents for early pick up.) Also a police officer or firefighter will stay with the children until back up or parents are there. Just my opinion hopefully it is never needed!!!

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No, I could never do this. Remember, you are responsible for all the children all the time. It would be wonderful if you have a spouse as backup though, someone you trust completely.

In some cases the paramedics do not want others in the ambulance and require them to follow in their car anyways.