Because pediatric patients are not of age to consent to care and procedures, facilitating parental involvement in all medical choices is critical. Increasingly, hospital systems are leveraging technology to not only keep parents informed but to communicate with families during a hospital stay and throughout discharge and recovery as well. This technology is part of a larger movement to provide innovative, outcome driven, value based care across the healthcare industry overall.
Recently, HIMSS released a white paper on the topic of Patient Engagement in Pediatrics focusing on three Children’s Hospitals in particular who have piloted such technology.
The big take-away from these interviews is that parents have a desire for this technology. However, obstacles of training, adoption and user interface still remain despite the effort to serve this demographic.
Our very own Senior Health Strategist, Christina Caraballo, interviewed Brian Jacobs, MD – VP, CMIO and CIO, Children’s National Health System as part of her work on the HIMSS Connected Health Committee.
What Jacobs and the others participating in the case studies noted was that while parents often struggle with ways to engage with clinicians and effectively advocate for their child’s course of care and recovery process.
“Due to varying state laws around proxy access to minor’s data, minor’s access to their own health information, and questions around sensitive health data, many organizations are deciding to simply not give electronic access to minors,” said Caraballo. “It is refreshing to see leading providers of pediatric care take the initiative to not only engage children in their families while in the hospital, but also enable electronic access to their health information.”
These case studies provide real world feedback regarding pediatric portals which will assist in refining existing systems and a roadmap for hospitals seeking effective solutions in the near future.
Read the full interview here.
