The Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC) Program is a federal-funded initiative designed to reduce child and youth disability and death due to severe illness or injury. The first EMSC legislation was passed in 1984.
The EMSC Program is jointly administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
EMSC is the only Federal program that focuses on improving the quality of children's emergency care. It builds upon existing Emergency Medical Services (EMS) systems, which initially focused on adult emergency care with little attention paid to the special needs of children.
