Children's complex care program gets funding

The Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario will continue running a program for children with complex illnesses thanks to $300,000 of new funding provided through the Community Care Access Centre.

The Pediatric Complex Care Program serves 21 patients, including two-year-old Kate Drury. All of the patients are those who doctors term "fragile," and who suffer from complex diseases.

Drury has lived with an undiagnosed condition for her entire life. Her illness doctors' latest working diagnosis is a mitochondrial disease has left her deaf, and requires frequent trips to the hospital. The toddler has had so many blood tests doctors say her blood vessels are scarred.

Julie Drury, Kate's mother, said the complex care program has cut down on the number of needles.

"She had blood work done last week. Anyone who needs blood work from Kate, they call them all," Drury said, before listing a long line of specialists Kate has over 15.

"And then it's just one poke not three pokes in one day."

The program works by establishing one point of contact for the patient's family. That person does everything from scheduling appointments, setting up consultations with experts and arranging medical procedures, whichDrury's family was once left to do on their own.

As Drury describes it, the system was once, "Who have I talked to? Who have I not talked to? Is this test being run? Did that test result get communicated to the doctor?"

Now, "you know you have one doctor who knows her," said Drury.

Program saves hospital costs: doctor

While the program benefits the patient, it also cuts down on hospital costs incurred by repeated tests.

"It definitely has an impact on the hospital," said Dr. Nathalie Major-Cook, who heads the pilot project that began last March.

The biggest improvements, she said are in the reduction of hospitalization and length of stay.

In a presentation Major-Cook gave about the complex care program, she cited a medical study that found between 13 and 18 per cent of youth live with a chronic health condition. That group accounts for 80 per cent of the health costs attributed to children overall, the study found.

Major-Cook also identified sharing information about complex cases like Drury as a serious concern for health-care workers.

The program has been a success so far, Major-Cook said, but more funding would be needed to run it on a larger scale.

"But before you can do this you need definitive funding," she said.