Complex care pathways for children with multiple referrals demonstrated in a retrospective population-based study

Area of Science:

• Pediatric healthcare research
• Complex care management
• Healthcare systems analysis

Background:

• Identifying children with complex medical needs is crucial for effective healthcare delivery.
• Understanding hospital care patterns can reveal unmet needs and service gaps.
• Pediatric complex care pathways require detailed examination.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify children with complex medical needs by examining their patterns of hospital care.
• To analyze temporal patterns and sequences of referrals, care episodes, and diagnoses in pediatric patients.
• To investigate cross-specialty care flows for children aged 6-12 years.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective population-based study.
• Analysis of 18,577 patients aged 6-12 years from a hospital register (2013-2015).
• Examination of referral sequences, diagnoses, and inter-specialty care transitions.

Main Results:

• Over a third of patients had repeated referrals; 14.9% had three or more.
• 9.3% of patients received referrals to both somatic and mental healthcare services.
• Combined referrals correlated with more referrals and diverse diagnoses; high frequency of non-specific diagnoses noted.

Conclusions:

• Children with multiple referrals exhibit an increased risk for complex care pathways.
• Interdisciplinary referral patterns are common, particularly in mental healthcare.
• Findings underscore the necessity of developing interdisciplinary approaches for complex pediatric conditions.