Flipping the Script on Emergency Care for Children With Medical Complexity
Children with medical complexity (CMC) are traditionally defined as those who have health conditions that are expected to last at least 12 months and affect multiple body systems or 1 system severely enough that specialty care and hospitalization are necessary.1 This definition has been refined recently to reflect the necessary multifaceted approach to address increasing prevalence, cost, and challenges of caring for this population in the community and the hospital setting.2–5 Most of the current literature on CMC focuses specifically on the strengthening of the medical home (and more recently, the medical neighborhood) and highlights the importance of preventing inpatient hospitalization and emergency care.6 The importance of this work is irrefutable for CMC, but in regard to their emergency needs, we would like to propose a flip in the current script.