Surgical Synergy: Assessing Care Coordination in Pediatric Surgical Referral Programs

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Surgery
• Healthcare Coordination
• Patient Outcomes

Background:

• Specialized pediatric surgical programs (PSPs) are increasingly common for complex conditions.
• Care is often delivered far from patients' homes, creating coordination challenges.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore care coordination gaps from multiple stakeholder perspectives.
• To identify opportunities for optimizing post-discharge practices in pediatric surgical care.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of care coordination guidelines.
• Qualitative interviews with three PSPs.
• Surveys of family support networks and American Pediatric Surgical Association (APSA) members.

Main Results:

• Identified eight thematic domains for an ideal care coordination framework.
• PSPs face challenges with medication/device access, documentation, and feedback.
• Families reported gaps in confirmation of receipt and insurance coverage.
• Local surgeons perceive bias against non-academic settings as a barrier.

Conclusions:

• PSPs' care coordination practices are inconsistent with a standardized framework.
• Improved alignment between PSPs, families, and local surgeons is needed.
• Optimizing pediatric surgical post-discharge care coordination requires addressing geographic disparities.