The House Health and Human Services Committee voted unanimously to advance a measure that seeks to improve pediatric readiness in hospital emergency departments. Its next stop is the House floor.

Punta Gorda Republican Rep. Vanessa Oliver presented the bill (HB 1119) and detailed how hospitals across Florida aren’t properly equipped to handle specific treatment for children.

“This bill addresses the lack of pediatric readiness in our hospital emergency departments,” Oliver said. “Current Florida law has no specific standards of care for treating children in hospital emergency departments. While children’s hospitals are designed, staffed, and supplied to take critically ill and injured children, more than 82% of children who need emergency care, are treated in general hospital emergency departments, which primarily treat adults and may not be prepared to treat children because of low pediatric volume.”

Oliver added, “This lack of preparedness can result in the loss of precious young lives. Reseach shows that 1440 lives could have been saved between 2012 and 2017 if those children had received care in emergency departments with high levels of pediatric readiness.”

Oliver further detailed how the bill would bolster preparedness, including the implementation of evidence-based policies.

“HB 1119 addresses this lack of pediatric readiness in our emergency departments by doing five things,” Oliver said. “First, it requires all hospitals with emergency departments to have evidence-based policies and procedures for pediatric emergency care, related to triage, measuring and recording vital signs, weighing and recording weights in kilograms, calculating medication dosages and using pediatric instruments.”

Emergency departments would also be required to conduct training, designate a care coordinator, conduct a national assessment, and would further require the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) to publish hospital scores.

Boca Raton Democratic Rep. Kelly Skidmore asked if there were specific hospitals in specific areas that were not prepared, or if it was in all hospitals in Florida.

In response, Oliver said the biggest problem is emergency departments not having suitable equipment to properly monitor children who come through the door.

“Our hospital emergency departments, in general, if you have a sick child, that’s where you should go,” Oliver said. “You should take that child to an emergency department. Most physicians and nurses have training in pediatrics. With that being said, ACHA has not established any policies that require these hospitals to have pediatric instruments.”

Oliver said ill-equipped emergency departments pose a risk of improper care for young patients, who may be sent home without treatment if medical staff lacks experience working with children.

“So, there have been instances where children have come to emergency departments, require, say a tracheotomy, and they haven’t had the correct size trach to treat the child,” Oliver said. “Or perhaps that physician or nurse is not used to seeing pediatric patients, so they might now understand that a child’s stomachache, is, rather than constipation, is actually a telescoping of the bowels that can form into scepsis and send that child home without treatment.”

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A bill that would create a new optional genetic screening for newborns and establish a statewide center at Florida State University to help study genetic disorders for children advanced with bipartisan support during a Monday committee meeting.

HB 907 was passed by the House Health & Human Services Committee Monday with a 25-0 vote.

“It gives Florida a once-in-a-generation opportunity to lead the nation in genomic and precision medicine, and it formally establishes the Florida Institute for Pediatric Rare Diseases at Florida State University,” said bill sponsor Adam Anderson, a Republican from Palm Harbor. “It ends what we call the diagnostic odyssey for children who are born with genetic disorders.”

The bill appropriates $5 million to run the Institute for the 2025-26 fiscal year and $20 million for the five-year pilot program to expand the state’s newborn screening program to look from the 60 conditions currently to about 600 conditions. 

The voluntary Sunshine Genetics Pilot Program would provide the information from the screenings to parents and their health-care providers.

Anderson argued the money would be well-spent because 10,000 rare diseases affect 30 million people in the United States.

“It takes on average four to five years, plus seven or more visits to specialists, plus overnight stays in a NICU to diagnose a child with a rare disease,” Anderson said. “Sadly, many of these children pass away without receiving any meaningful treatment at all.”

The new institute within the Florida State University College of Medicine would help advance research for improved screening and treatments.

Better screening means better outcomes for children, he said, adding the bill has an economic value too. 

“It will position Florida as a hub for a $100 billion genomic medicine industry,” he said.

Dr. Paul Kruszka, Chief Medical Officer at GeneDx, a private company that does genetics testing, urged lawmakers to pass HB 907.

“With this bill, Florida can set the gold standard for genomic sequencing. I urge you to support this landmark legislation to make Florida the leader newborn screening,” Kruszka said.

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