Pediatric palliative care (PPC) is an American Board of Pediatrics recognized subspecialty, yet despite its importance in the overall care of children with complex chronic illness, how common are PPC programs in children’s hospitals?
Weaver et al (10.1542/peds.2022-057872) analyzed data from the Children’s Hospital Association’s Annual Benchmark Report (ABR) 2020, looking at the availability of PPC programs in 148 out of 231 hospitals who responded to a survey on this topic (64% response rate). The good news is that 80% of the children’s hospitals who responded to the survey have a PPC program. Factors associated with having a PPC include being a free-standing children’s hospital or more commonly providing trauma care or providing care to higher acuity patients. However, about half of the existing PPC programs lack hospice services and 80% do not have family respite services.
To better understand what is preventing children’s hospitals from having a PPC program, we invited Dr. Lisa Humphrey, Director of Hospice and Palliative Medicine at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, to share her thoughts in an accompanying commentary (10.1542/peds.2022-058233). Dr. Humphrey reiterates the importance of implementing PPC programs in all children’s hospitals, identifies potential barriers to implementation such as financial constraints, and views this study as a “call to action” to advocate for state and national payment models so all children’s hospital whether or not they are free-standing can have a PPC program. If your local children’s hospital does not yet have a PPC program or if you want to see how your hospital’s PPC program compares to others in what it offers or could offer, link to this study and learn more.
