Children with medical complexity account for about 40 percent of pediatric Medicaid spending, yet comprise only 3 percent of the pediatric population. Currently, no population measures exist to describe these children, who have diverse conditions of variable severity. A study published in Pediatrics suggests 10 potential outcome domains as a starting point.
Team-based health care is a key component of the Chronic Care Model, which has shown to be successful for adults with chronic conditions. As the number of children with chronic conditions grows, and payers seek innovative ways to increase efficiency and effectiveness, it may be time to invest in restructuring pediatric practice to promote team-based care.
While self-management support has been a component of adult chronic care for decades, it is just emerging as a critical need for children, especially those with complex conditions. Self-management is a shared undertaking between the child, their parents and care providers, and must take into account the child’s developmental status and the family’s capacities. Clinicians need routine, standardized approaches and tools to address the unique needs of children and their families including assessing self-management skills, collaboratively setting goals, and promoting competence and autonomy in youth.
Care coordination is an important approach to addressing the fragmented care that children with medical complexity often encounter. What are optimal care coordination services? How does care coordination intersect with care integration and case management? Learn best practices and how to implement a process that will achieve improved outcomes and value for children with special health care needs and their families.
Child health professionals increasingly are being asked to include screening for adverse early experiences as part of routine preventive pediatric care. Screening and providing appropriate follow-up would be a huge challenge for most practices. A good first step might be to incorporate routine screening for maternal depression, one of the most common risk factors for family psychosocial problems.
Improvements in care delivery for children with medical complexity are becoming a major focus of national and local health care and policy initiatives. A number of new models have been developed, with promising examples of enhanced care coordination and family engagement.
When Magaly was 11, her mother, Olga, found suicide plans on her phone. Six years later, they continue to navigate the challenges of Magaly’s diagnosis of depression and psychosis. Their journey touches upon the importance of early identification of mental health issues, access to care, and the struggles for support. Children with chronic and complex physical conditions often have mental and emotional issues that go unrecognized and untreated.
Although federal programs are a major source of support for children with special health care needs and their families, the state in which a family lives can heavily influence whether the child has access to quality health care and other needed services. State and local statutes and regulations often determine eligibility criteria and requirements for receiving care. A new report from Child Trends, funded by the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, offers a framework for state agencies and other stakeholders to assess and improve how a state provides care across health, education, justice and other systems.
Engaging with families is vital to transforming the health care system and positively impacting the life course of vulnerable populations. Families have extensive experience in partnering with professionals to improve systems of care, are organized and connected across the country, and stand ready to assist at every level of next efforts for improvement. Learn how to meaningfully involve families at every level of health care systems and engage them as critical partners in designing policies that will improve care for all children.
Families of CSHCN are the experts on their children’s health care and on how systems and services could function more effectively to meet their needs. However, many family members lack the skills, confidence, and support to pursue advocacy and leadership roles in system change. That’s beginning to change in California.
