Complex Health Care Program

When your child needs specialized, coordinated care, everything matters.

Patients with complex problems need services that are holistic, coordinated, continuous and family-centered. The Complex Health Care Program at Nationwide Children’s Hospital helps patients achieve the best possible state of health and quality of life.

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Overview

Care Models

Our Team

About Complex Care

The Complex Health Care Program (CHC) follows children with medical complexity. This includes children who:

Have neurologic problems that result in loss of function and physical disability and
Have serious chronic problems involving at least three organ systems and
Are medically fragile as defined by using a lot of health care resources - they have frequent unplanned hospital admissions or have a high number of Emergency Room or specialty care visits
Often they depend on technology such as feeding tubes and tracheostomies

Additional Clarifications About the Care We Provide:

We provide both primary and consultative care. Those seeking primary care should live within a one-hour radius of Nationwide Children's Hospital.
Patients should be receiving specialty care at Nationwide Children's.
New referrals for individuals over 18 are considered carefully. It is often not possible to arrange for specialty care at Nationwide Children's in this older population and in many situations care is better established where it is possible to unify services under one umbrella institution.
Children with predominant neurobehavioral disabilities who do not have the elements outlined above are best followed by experts in those conditions.

Patients and their families are the most important drivers of the care team, which includes their primary care provider and often an extensive network of specialists. Our program helps patients and their families be informed of medical services, avoid duplication and make care choices in keeping with the child’s and family’s goals.

The program is located on the first floor of Nationwide Children’s Hospital Main Campus in Suite T1A. The Complex Health Care clinic in Suite T1A is across the hall from Urgent Care Main Campus. Parking is available in the Urgent Care Parking surface lot, as well as the Blue and Orange garages.

Models of Care

Depending on the preferences of the family and the child’s primary care provider, we offer two models of care. Our models provide continuity that strives to reduce fragmentation of care; improve navigation within both the hospital and larger community settings; advocate for patient and family service needs, goals, and choices; and assist with planning for transition to adult models of care.
Medical Home

The Medical Home is a “wrap-around” service that provides a family-centered approach to the care of a child or adult with complex needs. It includes primary care. Care is accessible, coordinated, compassionate, continuous, comprehensive and culturally effective.

The benefits to families include:

24/7 availability by phone
Sick visits usually available within 24 hours
Coordination of primary and specialty care needs, including anticipatory guidance, school physicals, immunizations and well and sick visits
A consistent point of access
Care coordination

The Medical Home Away from Home service provides care to children in conjunction with their primary care medical home. We will ensure that there is excellent communication and involvement between the primary care physician, Nationwide Children’s staff, and the patient and their family.

The benefits include:

Sick visits usually available within 24 hours if primary care physician is unavailable
A consistent point of access
Anticipatory guidance
Care coordination