USE CASE: Improving Care for Medically Complex Children
Children’s Hospital Colorado (CHCO) was founded in 1908 with the mission to improve the health of children through the provision of high-quality, coordinated programs of patient care, education, research and advocacy.
Project Summary Over the past several years, Children’s Colorado has used their internal clinical and financial data resources to improve patient outcomes by reducing variation in care provided for specific pediatric diseases. For example, by looking specifically at differences in utilization, length of stay and complication rates among children undergoing appendectomies, they were able to improve care, lower the cost and improve surgical outcomes. In order to expand these efforts, CHCO is using CO APCD data to assess variation in care for high risk populations in which their services must interface with other health systems, such as home health, mental health services, durable medical equipment, pharmacy, other ancillary services and other community providers.
Their work focuses on children with medical complexity (CMC) who have medical fragility and intense medical and coordination of care needs that are not well met by existing health care models.
Benefit to Colorado CO APCD data helps CHCO identify ways to address all three aspects of the Triple Aim – better health, better care and lower costs – for children with complex medical needs.