Biomedical Science and Research Journals | Medically Complex Children; Defining A Specialty
Medically Complex Children; Defining A Specialty Opinion Medically complex children can be defined as subset of pediatrics with multiple co-morbidities, technology dependence, increased healthcare needs, and significant functional limitations [ 1 ]. The proportion of medically complex children requiring services in the pediatric healthcare environment is rapidly increasing [ 1 ]. In addition, medically complex children have the potential to significantly impact institutional indicators of success including hospital-readmissions and mortality rates, as well as healthcare costs [ 2 , 3 ]. Significant vulnerability as well as increased reliance on artificial and technological devices for survival may also disproportionally impact other quality measures of success including nosocomial infections, ventilator associated pneumonia, central line associated blood stream infections, surgical site infections, catheter associated urinary tract infections, pressure ulcer rates,