From Service to Center: Leading Palliative Innovations for Complex Populations

Summary

After establishing a Palliative Care Service in Pediatrics, our team at the University of Mississippi Medical Center realized that the majority of patients needing compassionate goals of care and symptom management were children with medical complexity. We discovered that, in order to support our patients’ and families’ quality of life, we had to re-imagine the scope of a Palliative Care team. Additionally, we began leading care for vent-dependent children who live at home or in our hospital without the means to get home. We evolved our service into an inpatient and outpatient medical “center” for these children, and we grew from a service of 70 to 1200 over 5 years. Now, we are now partnering with the Mississippi State Legislature, Medicaid, and institutional leaders to build a home for medically complex children. We are also launching an accountable care coordination pilot project with Medicaid to serve this population with an initial budget of $160,000.