Separate but coordinated appointments
A dedicated clinic isn’t the answer for all institutions, however. At Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the size of the networks and all its satellites made a one-stop shop impractical.
“We talked about a consolidated clinic early on, when MIS-C was first emerging and all our groups were collaborating and coming up with our inpatient and outpatient care pathways,” said Sanjeev K. Swami, MD, an infectious disease pediatrician at CHOP and associate professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania. But timing varies on when each specialist wants to see the families return, and existing clinic schedules and locations varied too much.
Dr. Sanjeev K. Swami
So CHOP coordinates appointments individually for each patient, depending on where the patient lives and sometimes stacking them on the same day when possible. Sometimes infectious disease or rheumatology use telehealth, and CHOP, like the other hospitals, prioritizes cardiology, especially for the patients who had cardiac abnormalities in the hospital, Dr. Swami said.
“All three of our groups try to be as flexible as possible. We’ve had a really good collaboration between our groups,” he said, and spreading out follow-up allows specialists to ask about concerns raised at previous appointments, ensuring stronger continuity of care.
“We can make sure things are getting followed up on,” Dr. Swami said. “I think that has been beneficial to make sure things aren’t falling through the cracks.”
CHOP cardiologist Dr. Elias said that ongoing communication, among providers and with families, has been absolutely crucial.
“Everyone’s been talking so frequently about our MIS-C patients while inpatient that by the time they’re an outpatient, it seems to work smoothly, where families are hearing similar items but with a different flair, one from infectious, one from rheumatology, and one from cardiology,” he said.
Children’s Mercy in Kansas City, Mo., also has multiple satellite clinics and follows a model similar to that of CHOP. They discussed having a dedicated multidisciplinary team for each MIS-C patient, but even the logistics of that were difficult, said Emily J. Fox, MD, a rheumatologist and assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Dr. Emily J. Fox
Instead, Children’s Mercy tries to coordinate follow-up appointments to be on the same day and often use telehealth for the rheumatology appointments. Families that live closer to the hospital’s location in Joplin, Mo., go in for their cardiology appointment there, and then Dr. Fox conducts a telehealth appointment with the help of nurses in Joplin.
“We really do try hard, especially since these kids are in the hospital for a long time, to make the coordination as easy as possible,” Dr. Fox said. “This was all was very new, especially in the beginning, but I think at least our group is getting a little bit more comfortable in managing these patients.”