Abstract
With the medical and surgical advances of recent decades, a growing proportion of children rely on home-based care for daily health monitoring and care tasks. However, a dearth of available home health care providers with pediatric training to serve children and youth with medical complexity markedly limits the current capacity of home health care to meet the needs of patients and their families. In this article we analyze the workforce gaps, payment models, and policy challenges unique to home health care for children and youth with medical complexity, including legal challenges brought by families because of home nursing shortages. We propose a portfolio of solutions to address the current failures, including payment reform, improved coordination of services and pediatric home health training through partnerships with child-focused health systems, telehealth-enabled opportunities to bridge current workforce gaps, and the better alignment of pediatric care with the needs of adult-focused long-term services and supports.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 987-993 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Health Affairs |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 2019 |
Funding
The writing of this article was funded by a grant from the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health, Palo Alto, California (Grant No. 2017-00219). This is an open access article
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Health Policy
