The care of critically ill children has become more complex and demanding.
This document establishes recommendations for developing regionalized integ
ration of the care of these children into the emergency medical services sy
stem, These recommendations were developed by pediatricians with expertise
in pediatric critical care, transport, and emergency medicine from the Pedi
atric Section of the Society of Critical Care Medicine Task Force on Region
alization of Pediatric Critical Care and the Committee on Pediatric Emergen
cy Medicine from the American Academy of Pediatrics. The document was devel
oped from existing guidelines from a number of professional organizations (
including the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the American Academy of
Pediatrics), a thorough review of the literature, and expert consensus.