HM19: Pediatric medical and surgical co-management
Presenter
Erin Shaughnessy, MD, MSHCM
Session title
Reaching Across the Aisle: Pediatric Co-Management with Surgery and Subspecialists
Dr. Mirna Giordano
Session summary
Dr. Shaughnessy articulated a balanced approach to the importance of careful selection of patients needing to be co-managed by pediatric hospitalists. She compared two personal and very different experiences.
She initially managed a well-developed surgical co-management service at a quaternary, academic, free-standing children’s hospital, in which surgeons and subspecialists also admitted and managed patients to their own services. Currently, Dr. Shaughnessy is a division chief at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, a free-standing children’s hospital with a community hospital background, in which hospitalists admit most, if not all the patients, while subspecialty services have been transitioning only recently to having their own admitting services and employing the ideas of limited co-management.
She reminded the HM19 audience of the essential principles of co-management: shared responsibility, authority and accountability for the care of a hospitalized patient, discussing the scenarios, both from literature and real life, in which the line could become blurry at times.
Many pediatric programs are moving away from a traditional consultation model, Dr. Shaughnessy said, in which a consult is called for a new or a persistent problem with a patient, and where a consulting team signs off upon the resolved issue.
The more modern co-management model infuses a need for anticipatory and prevention-heavy approach, intertwined with fiscally responsible ideas that must be palatable for all: administration, hospitalists, and patients.
Dr. Shaughnessy reviewed a number of articles from both adult and pediatric literature with varied results, some that have shown decreased length of stay, decreased number of medical complications, decreased readmissions, decreased number of tests, but some that have also shown an increase in median hospital costs, emphasizing perhaps the importance of context in which one practices.
Finally, she identified patient selection, collaborative relationships, clear roles delineation, and excellence in communication as four main factors deciding the faith of a co-management model.
Key takeaways for HM
1. Careful selection of patients to be co-managed is essential and can prevent potential increase in costs and negative outcomes.
2. Success in medical and surgical co-management relies on well-delineated roles, collaborative culture, and immaculate communication.
Dr. Giordano is a pediatric neurosurgery hospitalist and assistant professor in pediatrics at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York.
