Development of a New Care Model for Hospitalized Children With Medical Complexity

Children with medical complexity are a rapidly growing inpatient population with frequent, lengthy, and costly hospitalizations. During hospitalization, these patients require care coordination among multiple subspecialties and their outpatient medical homes. At a large freestanding children’s hospital, a new inpatient model of care was developed in an effort to consistently provide coordinated, family-centered, and efficient care. In addition to expanding the multidisciplinary team to include a pharmacist, dietician, and social worker, the team redesign included: (1) medication reconciliation rounds, (2) care coordination rounds, and (3) multidisciplinary weekly handoff with outpatient providers. During weekly medication reconciliation rounds, the team pharmacist reviews each patient’s current medications with the team. In care coordination rounds, the team collaborates with unit care managers to identify discharge needs and complete discharge tasks. Finally, at the end of the week, the outgoing hospital medicine attending physician hands off patient care to the incoming attending with input from the team’s pharmacist, dietician, and social worker. Families and providers noted improvements in care coordination with the new care model. Remaining challenges include balancing resident autonomy and attending supervision, as well as supporting providers in delivering care that can be emotionally challenging. Aspects of this care model could be tested and adapted at other hospitals that care for children with medical complexity. Additionally, future work should study the impact of inpatient complex care models on patient health outcomes and experience.