It's About Time: Rapid Implementation of a Hub-and-Spoke Care Delivery Model for Tertiary-Integrated Complex Care Services in a Northern Ontario Community.

Children with medical complexity (CMC) in rural and northern communities have more difficulty accessing subspecialty health providers than those in urban centres. This article describes an alignment cascade in which leaders engaged peers and staff to rapidly roll out the implementation of a sustainably designed complex care model, integrated in the Champlain Complex Care Program and delivered in Timmins, Ontario. The Provincial Council for Maternal and Child Health's Complex Care for Kids Ontario (CCKO) strategy supports the implementation and expansion of a hub-and-spoke model of interprofessional complex care for CMC and their families. A nurse practitioner is the primary point of contact for the family and oversees coordination and integration of care; regional CCKO programs are committed to building capacity to provide safe, high-quality care for CMC in communities closer to their homes.

A prospective comparison of cancer clinical trial availability and enrollment among adolescents/young adults treated at an adult cancer hospital or affiliated children's hospital.

BACKGROUND: Low cancer clinical trial (CCT) enrollment may contribute to survival disparities affecting adolescents and young adults (AYAs) (ages 15-39 years). The objective of this study was to evaluate whether differences in CCT availability related to treatment site could explain the low CCT enrollment. METHODS: This prospective, observational cohort study was conducted at an academic children's hospital and its affiliated but geographically separated adult cancer hospital within a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. For consecutive, newly diagnosed AYA patients, it was determined whether an appropriate CCT existed nationally, was available at the treatment site, and was used for enrollment. Proportions of AYAs in these categories were compared between sites using the chi-square test. RESULTS: One hundred fifty-two consecutive AYA patients were included from the children's hospital (n = 68; ages 15-20 years) and the adult cancer hospital (n = 84; ages 18-39 years). Although there was no difference in CCT existence for individual AYA patients by site (children's hospital [36 of 68 patients; 52.9%] vs adult cancer hospital [45 of 84 patients; 53.6%]; P = .938), CCT availability was significantly lower at the adult cancer hospital (14 of 84 patients [16.7%] vs 30 of 68 [44.1%] at the children's hospital; P < .001). The proportion of AYAs enrolled was low at both sites (8 of 68 patients [11.8%] vs 6 of 84 patients [7.1%], respectively; P = .327). Fewer existing CCTs were available at the adult cancer hospital (4 of 27 patients [14.8%] vs 8 of 14 patients [57.1%], respectively), and those were directed toward solid tumors and new agents. CONCLUSIONS: Efforts to improve low CCT enrollment among AYAs should be differentiated by treatment site. In the adult setting, these efforts should be aimed at improving CCT availability by overcoming site-level barriers to opening existing CCTs.

Improving Anaphylaxis Care: The Impact of a Clinical Pathway.

BACKGROUND: Recommended durations of observation after anaphylaxis have been widely variable, with many ranging from 4 to 24 hours. Prolonged durations often prompt admission for ongoing observation. METHODS: In a multidisciplinary quality improvement initiative, we revised our emergency department (ED) anaphylaxis clinical pathway. Our primary aim was to safely decrease the recommended length of observation from 8 to 4 hours and thereby decrease unnecessary hospitalizations. Secondary aims included provider education on anaphylaxis diagnostic criteria, emphasizing epinephrine as first-line therapy, and implementing a practice of discharging ED patients with an epinephrine autoinjector in hand. The study period consisted of the 18 months before pathway revision (baseline) and the 18 months after revision. RESULTS: The overall admission rate decreased from 58.2% (106 of 182) in the baseline period to 25.3% (65 of 257) after pathway revision (P < .0001). There was no significant difference in the percentage of patients returning to the ED within 72 hours, and there were no adverse outcomes or deaths throughout the study period. After pathway revision, the median time to first epinephrine administration for the most critical patients was 10 minutes, and 85.4% (164 of 192) of patients were discharged with an epinephrine autoinjector in hand. CONCLUSIONS: By revising an anaphylaxis clinical pathway, we were able to streamline the care of patients with anaphylaxis presenting to a busy pediatric ED, without any compromise in safety. Most notably, decreasing the recommended length of observation from 8 to 4 hours resulted in a near 60% reduction in the average rate of admission.

Pediatric Specialty Care Model for Management of Chronic Respiratory Failure: Cost and Savings Implications and Misalignment With Payment Models.

OBJECTIVE: To describe program design, costs, and savings implications of a critical care-based care coordination model for medically complex children with chronic respiratory failure. DESIGN: All program activities and resultant clinical outcomes were tracked over 4 years using an adapted version of the Care Coordination Measurement Tool. Patient characteristics, program activity, and acute care resource utilization were prospectively documented in the adapted version of the Care Coordination Measurement Tool and retrospectively cross-validated with hospital billing data. Impact on total costs of care was then estimated based on program outcomes and nationally representative administrative data. SETTING: Tertiary children's hospital. SUBJECTS: Critical Care, Anesthesia, Perioperative Extension and Home Ventilation Program enrollees. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The program provided care for 346 patients and families over the study period. Median age at enrollment was 6 years with more than half deriving secondary respiratory failure from a primary neuromuscular disease. There were 11,960 encounters over the study period, including 1,202 home visits, 673 clinic visits, and 4,970 telephone or telemedicine encounters. Half (n = 5,853) of all encounters involved a physician and 45% included at least one care coordination activity. Overall, we estimated that program interventions were responsible for averting 556 emergency department visits and 107 hospitalizations. Conservative monetization of these alone accounted for annual savings of $1.2-2 million or $407/pt/mo net of program costs. CONCLUSIONS: Innovative models, such as extension of critical care services, for high-risk, high-cost patients can result in immediate cost savings. Evaluation of financial implications of comprehensive care for high-risk patients is necessary to complement clinical and patient-centered outcomes for alternative care models. When year-to-year cost variability is high and cost persistence is low, these savings can be estimated from documentation within care coordination management tools. Means of financial sustainability, scalability, and equal access of such care models need to be established.

Factors to consider in the introduction of huddles on clinical wards: perceptions of staff on the SAFE programme.

OBJECTIVES: To explore paediatric hospital staff members' perceptions of the emerging benefits and challenges of the huddle, a new safety improvement initiative, as well as the barriers and facilitators to its implementation. DESIGN: A qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews to explore staff perspectives and experiences. SETTING: Situation Awareness For Everyone (SAFE), a safety improvement programme, was implemented on a sample of National Health Service (NHS) paediatric wards from September 2014 to June 2016. Previously untested in England, the huddle was a central component of the programme. PARTICIPANTS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 76 staff members on four wards ~4 months after the start of the programme. RESULTS: A thematic analysis showed that staff perceived the huddle as helping to increase their awareness of important issues, improve communication, facilitate teamwork, and encourage a culture of increased efficiency, anticipation and planning on the ward. Challenges of the huddle included added pressure on staff time and workload, and the potential for junior nurses to be excluded from involvement, thus perhaps inadvertently reinforcing medical hierarchies. Staff also identified several barriers and facilitators to the huddle process, including the importance of senior nursing and medical staff leadership and managing staff time and capacity issues. CONCLUSIONS: The findings point towards the potential efficacy of the huddle as a way of improving hospital staff members' working environments and clinical practice, with important implications for other sites seeking to implement such safety improvement initiatives.

Why Are There So Few Ethics Consults in Children's Hospitals?

In most children's hospitals, there are very few ethics consultations, even though there are many ethically complex cases. We hypothesize that the reason for this may be that hospitals develop different mechanisms to address ethical issues and that many of these mechanisms are closer in spirit to the goals of the pioneers of clinical ethics than is the mechanism of a formal ethics consultation. To show how this is true, we first review the history of collaboration between philosophers and physicians about clinical dilemmas. Then, as a case-study, we describe the different venues that have developed at one children's hospital to address ethical issues. At our hospital, there are nine different venues in which ethical issues are regularly and explicitly addressed. They are (1) ethics committee meetings, (2) Nursing Ethics Forum, (3) ethics Brown Bag workshops, (4) PICU ethics rounds, (5) Grand Rounds, (6) NICU Comprehensive Care Rounds, (7) Palliative Care Team (PaCT) case conferences, (8) multidisciplinary consults in Fetal Health Center, and (9) ethics consultations. In our hospital, ethics consults account for only a tiny percentage of ethics discussions. We suspect that most hospitals have multiple and varied venues for ethics discussions. We hope this case study will stimulate research in other hospitals analyzing the various ways in which ethicists and ethics committees can build an ethical environment in hospitals. Such research might suggest that ethicists need to develop a different set of "core competencies" than the ones that are needed to do ethics consultations. Instead, they should focus on their skills in creating multiple "moral spaces" in which regular and ongoing discussion of ethical issues would take place. A successful ethicist would empower everyone in the hospital to speak up about the values that they believe are central to respectful, collaborative practice and patient care. Such a role is closer to what the first hospital philosophers set out to do than in the role of the typical hospital ethics consultant today.

Student nurses experience of a "fairy garden" healing haven garden for sick children.

BACKGROUND: The concept and philosophy of healing environments in health care is not new and there has been recent research into the experience of nurses and families experience of healing environments producing positive outcomes in relieving stress and improving quality of life. However, there is little in-depth information about student nurse's experience of healing environments in support of patients. AIM: To report on the stories of student nurses who participated in formal and informal activities in a healing haven environment called a Fairy Garden (FG) within a hospital in northern Thailand. Their beliefs about the care of sick children in an environment designed to provide educational and recreational activity during hospital care are explored. METHODS: Narrative inquiry, a qualitative methodology was selected to capture the main threads of the participants' experience. Clandinin's narrative inquiry framework involving the three commonality dimensions of sociality, temporality and place were used in analysing the data. Sixty-two student nurses from a Thai College of Nursing and from an Australian university were interviewed. RESULTS: In this study the place of a FG has been investigated as a non-clinical environment providing sick children with exposure to nature, play activities and spaces to explore. Findings include three main threads: freedom to be a child not a sick child, engaging in care and professionalism, a moment in time of living fantasy. CONCLUSIONS: Student nurses in this study had a broader understanding of health care other than the biomedical model. It transformed their learning and opened their eyes to a more holistic approach to humanising care of sick children.

Hospital Amic / Hospital Amic

No disponible

Behavioral Health Integration in Health Care Settings: Lessons Learned from a Pediatric Hospital Primary Care System.

Behavioral health integration within primary care has been evolving, but literature traditionally focuses on smaller scale efforts. We detail how behavioral health has been integrated across a large, urban pediatric hospital system's six primary care clinics (serving over 35,000 children annually and insured predominately through Medicaid) and discuss strategies for success in sustaining and expanding efforts to achieve effective integration of behavioral health into primary care. In a time span of 3 years, the clinics have implemented routine, universal behavioral health screening at well child visits, participated in a 15-month behavioral health screening quality improvement learning collaborative, and integrated the work of psychologists and psychiatrists. Additional work remains to be done in improving family engagement, further expanding services, and ensuring sustainability.

Hospital Leadership Recognizes Need to Create Partnerships to Treat Consequences of Poverty.

In this paper, two senior administrative leaders at a tertiary care children's hospital explain why they decided to partner with a community organization in order to better fulfill the hospital mission.

Hospital-Level Variation in Practice Patterns and Patient Outcomes for Pediatric Patients Hospitalized With Functional Constipation.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Constipation is a common pediatric condition with a prevalence of 3% to 5% in children aged 4 to 17 years. Currently, there are no evidence-based guidelines for the management of pediatric patients hospitalized with constipation. The primary objective was to evaluate practice patterns and patient outcomes for the hospital management of functional constipation in US children's hospitals. METHODS: We conducted a multicenter, retrospective cohort study of children aged 0 to 18 years hospitalized for functional constipation from 2012 to 2014 by using the Pediatric Health Information System. Patients were included by using constipation and other related diagnoses as classified by International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision. Patients with complex chronic conditions were excluded. Outcome measures included percentage of hospitalizations due to functional constipation, therapies used, length of stay, and 90-day readmission rates. Statistical analysis included means with 95% confidence intervals for individual hospital outcomes. RESULTS: A total of 14 243 hospitalizations were included, representing 12 804 unique patients. The overall percentage of hospitalizations due to functional constipation was 0.65% (range: 0.19%-1.41%, P < .0001). The percentage of patients receiving the following treatment during their hospitalization included: electrolyte laxatives: 40% to 96%; sodium phosphate enema: 0% to 64%; mineral oil enema: 0% to 61%; glycerin suppository: 0% to 37%; bisacodyl 0% to 47%; senna: 0% to 23%; and docusate 0% to 11%. Mean length of stay was 1.97 days (range: 1.31-2.73 days, P < .0001). Mean 90-day readmission rate was 3.78% (range: 0.95%-7.53%, P < .0001). CONCLUSIONS: There is significant variation in practice patterns and clinical outcomes for pediatric patients hospitalized with functional constipation across US children's hospitals. Collaborative initiatives to adopt evidence-based best practices guidelines could help standardize the hospital management of pediatric functional constipation.

Instituto Pediátrico del Corazón / Pediatric Health Institute

En el año 2001, se constituye el Instituto Pediátrico del Corazón (IPC) con el fin de integrar a cardiólogos pediátricos y cirujanos cardiacos en una unidad multidisciplinar dedicada a la atención integral del paciente con cardiopatía congénita. Esto incluye la atención a pacientes desde el periodo fetal hasta la edad adulta y requiere de una estrecha colaboración con intensivistas pediátricos, anestesiólogos, obstetras y cardiólogos de adultos. El crecimiento y la calidad de la actividad asistencial, investigadora y docente de esta unidad en los últimos años, la ha llevado a ser designada como unidad de referencia a nivel nacional (CSUR) para el tratamiento de neonatos y niños con cardiopatías congénitas así como para el tratamiento de la hipertensión pulmonar compleja (AU)

In the year 2001, the Pediatric Heart Institute (PHI) was formed in order to integrate pediatric cardiologists and heart surgeons into a multidisciplinary unit dedicated to the comprehensive care of the patient with congenital heart disease. This includes patient care from the fetal period up to the adult age and requires close collaboration by the pediatric intensive care physicians, anesthesiologists, adult cardiologist and obstetricians. The growth and quality of the care, investigator and teaching activity of this unit in recent years has led it to being designated as Reference Centers, Services and Units (CSUR by its acronym in Spanish) on the national level for the treatment of newborn and children with congenital heart disease and for the treatment of complex pulmonary hypertension (AU)

Sección de Neumología y Alergia Infantil del Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre / Pneumology and Child Child Allergy Section of the University Hospital 12 de Octubre

La Sección de Neumología y Alergia Infantil del Hospital 12 de Octubre ofrece atención integral al niño con patología alérgica y/o respiratoria ya desde su diagnóstico y aborda también el tratamiento y el seguimiento, tanto clínico como funcional con las técnicas más novedosas disponibles en la actualidad. Además de las patologías más prevalentes en la infancia, como el asma, atendemos también múltiples patologías complejas, de especial prevalencia en un hospital terciario como el 12 de Octubre, como la fibrosis quística, malformaciones broncopulmonares, displasia broncopulmonar, esofagitis eosinofílica, alergias alimentarias graves, ofreciendo la experiencia de especialistas en estos cuadros, de referencia en nuestra Comunidad y también en nuestro país (AU)

The Pneumology and Child Allergy Section of the Hospital 12 de Octubre offers comprehensive care to the child with allergic and/or respiratory condition from the time of their diagnosis and also approaches the treatment and follow-up, both clinical and functional with the newest techniques available at present. In addition to the most prevalent conditions in childhood, as asthma, we also attend to multiple complex conditions, of special prevalence in a tertiary hospital such as the 12 de Octubre, such as cystic fibrosis, bronchopulmonary malformations, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, eosinophilic esophagitis, severe food allergies, offering the experience of specialists in this pictures, of reference in our Community and also in our country (AU)

Validation of a Parent-Reported Experience Measure of Integrated Care.

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to design and validate a survey measuring the parents' and caregivers' experiences of integration of their child's care across providers. METHODS: After review of the literature on care coordination and integration, we solicited input regarding care experiences from focus groups of families with children with chronic conditions. These data informed a 95-item pilot survey that included elements from a care integration measure designed for adult care experiences. The survey was then administered to parents of children who had had at least 1 primary care appointment and 2 specialty care appointments in the previous 12 months. Psychometric analyses were used to establish scales through exploratory factor analysis, internal consistency using Cronbach's α, test-retest reliability using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, and known-group validity according to χ2 tests. All research activities were institutional review board approved. RESULTS: The pilot survey was completed as either a Web or mail survey by 255 participants. After excluding nonrating or screening questions and items not applicable to a large percentage of participants, 26 experience items were included in the exploratory factor analysis. The final survey contained 19 experience items in 5 scales: access, communication, family impact, care goal creation, and team functioning. Psychometric analyses supported these 5 scales. CONCLUSIONS: This project developed and validated a survey with 19 experience items, plus additional demographic and health needs and usage items. The Pediatric Integrated Care Survey can be used in quality improvement efforts to measure family-reported experience of pediatric care integration.

La Sección de Hospitalaización de Pediatría del Hospital Materno Infantil Gregorio Marañón en 2016 / Pediatric Hospitalization Section of the Hospital Materno Infantil Gregorio Marañón in 2016

Entre los objetivos principales de la hospitalización pediátrica en un hospital terciario se incluyen el cuidado integral de los pacientes pediátricos ingresados incluyendo aspectos diagnósticos, curativos, preventivos y de rehabilitación. La Academia Americana de Pediatría reconoció hace más de 20 años la importancia y el papel crucial de los programas de hospitalización pediátrica. Así, la Pediatría General en un hospital terciario juega un papel muy importante en el cuidado agudo de pacientes pediátricos con patologías prevalentes, pero también como coordinador e integrador del cuidado de pacientes crónicos y de alta complejidad. También creemos que la Pediatría General en un hospital terciario tiene la responsabilidad de desarrollar los programas de calidad, implantar una cultura de seguridad en Pediatría, promover protocolos y guías clínicas en patologías prevalentes, ser referentes en la educación de los familiares de nuestros pacientes así como desarrollar los programas de e-health y cooperación internacional (AU)

The main objectives of the Pediatric Hospitalist Programs within a Tertiary Hospital include comprehensive care to hospitalized pediatric patients in diagnostic, curative, preventive, and rehabilitation aspects. The American Academy of Pediatrics recognized about 20 years ago, the importance and the key role of Pediatrics Hospitalist programs. General Pediatrics plays an important role not only for the care in acute prevalent pathologies, but also as a coordinator and integrator in chronic and highly complex patients. We also believe that General Pediatrics at a Third level hospital, has the responsibility to develop quality programs, implement safety culture in hospitalized patients, promote protocols and clinical guidelines in prevalent pathologies, health education in our population, and developing e-health and international cooperation programs (AU)

Animal-Assisted Activities: Results From a Survey of Top-Ranked Pediatric Oncology Hospitals.

Animal-assisted activities (AAA) are increasingly common, yet little is known about practices in pediatric oncology. To address this gap, we surveyed the top 20 pediatric oncology hospitals in the United States in May and June of 2014. Questionnaires were sent via e-mail and generally returned by e-mail or postal mail. Among the 19 responding hospitals, the 18 that offered AAA to pediatric patients formed the basis of our analysis. All sites had written AAA policies. Most programs were restricted to dogs. At 11 hospitals, children with cancer could participate in AAA activities. Outpatient waiting rooms and individual inpatient rooms were the most common locations for AAA with pediatric oncology patients. Safety precautions varied by hospital, but all required hand sanitation after visits and that animals receive an annual health examination, be on a leash or in a carrier, be ≥1 year old, and not be directly from a shelter. Our findings reveal consistencies and variations in practice that may help other hospitals develop their own programs and researchers identify areas of future study.

Improving surgical care for children through multicenter registries and QI collaboratives.

The role of the healthcare organization is shifting and must overcome the challenges of fragmented, costly care, and lack of evidence in practice, to reduce cost, ensure quality, and deliver high-value care. Notable gaps exist within the expected quality and delivery of pediatric healthcare, necessitating a change in the role of the healthcare organization. To realize these goals, the use of collaborative networks that leverage massive datasets to provide information for the development of learning healthcare systems will become increasingly necessary as efforts are made to narrow the gap in healthcare quality for children. By building upon the lessons learned from early collaborative efforts and other industries, operationalizing new technologies, encouraging clinical-community partnerships, and improving performance through transparent pursuit of meaningful goals, pediatric surgery can increase the adoption of best practices by developing collaborative networks that provide evidence-based clinical decision support and accelerate progress toward a new culture of delivering high-quality, high-value, and evidenced-based pediatric surgical care.

Integrating an EMR-based Transition Planning Tool for CYSHCN at a Children's Hospital: A Quality Improvement Project to Increase Provider Use and Satisfaction.

An electronic medical record (EMR)-based transition planning tool (TPT) designed to facilitate transition from pediatric to adult-based health care for youth (16-25 years) with special health care needs was introduced at a large children's hospital. Activities to increase provider use were implemented in five plan-do-study-act cycles. Overall, 22 of 25 (88%) consenting providers in four pediatric subspecialty services used the TPT during 303 patient encounters, with nurses and case-managers the top users and physicians the least likely users. Use was highest with intensive technical assistance and following the introduction of an upgraded tool. Provider satisfaction with the TPT and self-reported transition planning activities notably increased across the PDSA cycles.

How do you give information?

BEING A PATIENT in the NHS is like being a stranger in a foreign country. It has its own food, language and customs, clans and chiefs. It can be frightening, confusing and alienating for adults, let alone children visiting a hospital or GP's surgery.