Jay Berry, MD, MPH, is a pediatrician and hospitalist in the Complex Care Service at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Growing up, my parents repeatedly reminded me that “money doesn’t grow on trees.” They pleaded with me to spend it wisely. I’ve recently been thinking a lot about my parents and how their advice might apply to health care spending for my patients.
As a general pediatrician with the Complex Care Service at Boston Children’s Hospital, I care for “medically complex” children. These children—numbering an estimated 500,000 in the U.S.— have serious chronic health problems such as severe cerebral palsy and Pompe disease. Many of them rely on medical technology, like feeding and breathing tubes, to help maintain their health.
These children are expensive to take care of. They make frequent health care visits and tend be high utilizers of medications and equipment. Some use the emergency department and the hospital so often that they’ve been dubbed frequent flyers. …