Practicing High‐Value Pediatric Care During a Pandemic: The Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

High-value care (HVC) is a philosophy and approach to medicine that focuses on achieving the best patient outcomes through evidence-based practice while minimizing harm to patients, wasted healthcare resources, and costs. Incorporating HVC principles in pediatric clinical decision-making is particularly important owing to the harms of hospitalization, overutilization, and overdiagnosis, as well as rising costs of pediatric care. [1][2][3][4] How can we maintain these principles in the face of a global pandemic and new emerging syndrome, multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), which has dramatically impacted healthcare systems for children?In this article, we discuss the barriers and opportunities around practicing HVC in our evolving approach to novel COVID-19 management in hospitalized children. We also draw lessons from our experiences on how we can respond to future events that rapidly shift our approach to care.