Pediatric Complexity Tool Best Practice Alert: Early Identification of Care Coordination for Children with Special...

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Healthcare
• Quality Improvement Initiatives
• Health Informatics

Background:

• Care coordination programs aim to enhance access, communication, and reduce hospital length of stay for children with special health care needs (CSHCN).
• Effective care coordination requires multidisciplinary collaboration and early identification of medically complex pediatric patients upon admission.
• Timely identification is crucial for optimizing resources and facilitating smooth transitions for CSHCN.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe a quality improvement initiative focused on enhancing the early identification of CSHCN.
• To introduce a novel best practice alert integrated into the electronic medical record (EMR) system.
• To overcome challenges associated with the timely identification of CSHCN during hospital admission.

Main Methods:

• Development and implementation of a best practice alert within the EMR.
• The alert is designed to facilitate more efficient and timely enrollment of CSHCN into care coordination programs.
• Focus on improving the identification process at the point of hospital admission.

Main Results:

• The best practice alert has successfully improved the early identification of CSHCN.
• This has enabled care coordination benefits to be provided to patients earlier in their hospital stay.
• Demonstrates a successful quality improvement in patient identification for specialized care.

Conclusions:

• The developed best practice alert is an effective tool for the early identification of CSHCN.
• Implementing such alerts in EMR systems can significantly improve care coordination processes.
• Early identification and intervention through improved systems lead to better patient care and outcomes for CSHCN.