Emergency Medical Services for Children Innovation and Improvement Center | HRSA 20 037

Opportunity Information: Apply for HRSA 20 037

The Emergency Medical Services for Children Innovation and Improvement Center (EIIC) grant opportunity is a federal funding program from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), aimed at improving how emergency medical systems care for children. The core idea is to strengthen pediatric emergency care across the full EMS continuum, from prehospital response through emergency department care, by helping the field adopt evidence-based practices faster and more consistently. The program is structured as a cooperative agreement, which generally means the awardee is expected to work closely with HRSA on planning, implementation, and national dissemination rather than operating entirely independently.

The EIIC program is designed to demonstrate and spread practical, effective methods that raise the quality of clinical care and overall management of pediatric patients within EMS systems. It emphasizes several real-world gaps that often limit pediatric readiness, such as limited access to pediatric expertise (especially in smaller or rural services), inconsistent quality improvement infrastructure, and fragmented communication across states, agencies, hospitals, and professional groups. A major theme throughout the opportunity is building national support systems that make it easier for EMS agencies, hospitals, and EMSC stakeholders to find credible guidance, learn from tested improvement approaches, and apply what works in their own settings, including rural environments where pediatric resources can be especially scarce.

To meet that purpose, HRSA lays out four main areas of focus. First, the EIIC must provide access to pediatric EMS subject matter experts for EMSC grant recipients and other stakeholders, creating a dependable way to get timely, high-quality technical assistance and guidance. Second, the EIIC must design, develop, and evaluate Quality Improvement Collaboratives (QICs) that operate in both prehospital and hospital settings. These collaboratives are intended to test implementation strategies in real practice environments, generate new evidence and best practices, and then disseminate those lessons nationally so improvements scale beyond the participating sites. The QIC work is expected to align with emerging HRSA priorities, include mental health considerations, and reflect nationally recognized pediatric readiness policy statements for EMS systems and emergency departments. It also includes explicit collaboration with recipients of HRSA's Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Grant Program, reinforcing that rural pediatric emergency care needs are a priority rather than an afterthought. Third, the EIIC must strengthen communication across the EMSC community so that new evidence and best practices are shared more effectively and adopted in the field, with intentional attention to the realities of rural health systems. Fourth, the EIIC must build and maintain a publicly accessible, centralized repository of pediatric evidence-based resources for both prehospital professionals and emergency department staff, essentially serving as a national go-to hub for vetted tools, guidance, and educational materials.

HRSA also defines concrete performance targets the EIIC is expected to achieve by May 2024, which helps clarify what success looks like. One major metric is reach and visibility: at least 15 percent of the nation's EMS professionals should have accessed the central resource repository, including EMS professionals working in rural areas. Another metric focuses on measurable care improvement: 50 percent of the prehospital agencies and hospital facilities participating in QICs should demonstrate improvements in the quality of pediatric emergency care. The program also has workforce development goals tied to continuing education and dissemination through key pediatric readiness roles. By May 2024, at least 1,000 prehospital and hospital professionals should report improved knowledge of best practices after taking EIIC-administered pediatric EMS continuing education courses, and at least 1,000 Pediatric Emergency Care Coordinators (PECCs) across prehospital and hospital settings should receive information on effective methods for improving emergency care quality for children. Finally, the program is expected to improve stakeholder confidence and practical access to guidance: 80 percent of EMSC recipients and national stakeholders should report having access to high-quality resources and guidance that help translate clinical evidence into everyday EMS practice for pediatric care.

From an administrative standpoint, this opportunity is listed as HRSA-20-037 under CFDA 93.127, categorized as a discretionary health grant and funded through a cooperative agreement mechanism. HRSA anticipated making a single award, with an award ceiling of $2,500,000. The funding notice was created on October 31, 2019, and the original application closing date was January 29, 2020. Eligibility is described broadly as "Others" with additional eligibility details referenced in the full notice, implying it may be open to certain organizations beyond standard categories depending on HRSA's specific eligibility language in the complete announcement.

Overall, the EIIC opportunity is essentially about building national infrastructure for pediatric emergency care improvement: expert support that recipients can actually use, structured collaboratives that produce and spread implementation knowledge, stronger communication channels across the EMSC ecosystem, and a widely used, public, evidence-based resource library. The program is judged not just by creating tools or hosting trainings, but by showing meaningful uptake across the EMS workforce and demonstrable improvements in pediatric emergency care quality where the collaboratives are implemented.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Emergency Medical Services for Children Innovation and Improvement Center" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.127.
• This funding opportunity was created on Oct 31, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jan 29, 2020. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $2,500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for HRSA 20 037

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