Interdisciplinary Approaches Suggested for Children With Multiple Hospital Referrals Presenting With Non-specific Conditions

Aims: To describe the care patterns of patients with repeated referrals to both mental and somatic specialist healthcare, and to study their diagnostic processes. Methods: In a previous register study patients aged 6–12 years referred to Haukeland University Hospital from 2013 to 2015, we found 922...

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Autores principales: Elgen, Irene, Lygre, Ragnhild, Greve, Gottfried, Griffiths, Silja, Heggestad, Torhild
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8058187/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33898364
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fped.2021.656939
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author Elgen, Irene
Lygre, Ragnhild
Greve, Gottfried
Griffiths, Silja
Heggestad, Torhild
author_facet Elgen, Irene
Lygre, Ragnhild
Greve, Gottfried
Griffiths, Silja
Heggestad, Torhild
author_sort Elgen, Irene
collection PubMed
description Aims: To describe the care patterns of patients with repeated referrals to both mental and somatic specialist healthcare, and to study their diagnostic processes. Methods: In a previous register study patients aged 6–12 years referred to Haukeland University Hospital from 2013 to 2015, we found 922 children with at least three referrals including both somatic and mental health services. Of these, more than one in four (250) were randomly selected and observed from their first hospital episode ever and further after inclusion followed during their next three referrals or until July 2017. Data on referral patterns and diagnostics were collected from patient hospital records. Results: Mean number of referrals was 6.5 prior to inclusion and 4.2 in the follow-up period. At the end of the study period 15% of patients still had a non-specific diagnosis. During the follow-up period, more than half of the children were again referred across the border between somatic and mental healthcare. Conclusion: Very complex care patterns were found for these patients, who were repeatedly being referred and “crossing over” between mental and somatic healthcare. This indicates a need for more interdisciplinary-based approaches both within specialist care and between different care levels to broaden the perspective and achieve shorter time lag before reaching a diagnostic conclusion. Trial Registration: Data was obtained from Haukeland university hospital the patient registry system No. 2017/12470. Start of registration was April 1th 2017 and patients included was from 2013 to 15.
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spelling pubmed-80581872021-04-22 Interdisciplinary Approaches Suggested for Children With Multiple Hospital Referrals Presenting With Non-specific Conditions Elgen, Irene Lygre, Ragnhild Greve, Gottfried Griffiths, Silja Heggestad, Torhild Front Pediatr Pediatrics Aims: To describe the care patterns of patients with repeated referrals to both mental and somatic specialist healthcare, and to study their diagnostic processes. Methods: In a previous register study patients aged 6–12 years referred to Haukeland University Hospital from 2013 to 2015, we found 922 children with at least three referrals including both somatic and mental health services. Of these, more than one in four (250) were randomly selected and observed from their first hospital episode ever and further after inclusion followed during their next three referrals or until July 2017. Data on referral patterns and diagnostics were collected from patient hospital records. Results: Mean number of referrals was 6.5 prior to inclusion and 4.2 in the follow-up period. At the end of the study period 15% of patients still had a non-specific diagnosis. During the follow-up period, more than half of the children were again referred across the border between somatic and mental healthcare. Conclusion: Very complex care patterns were found for these patients, who were repeatedly being referred and “crossing over” between mental and somatic healthcare. This indicates a need for more interdisciplinary-based approaches both within specialist care and between different care levels to broaden the perspective and achieve shorter time lag before reaching a diagnostic conclusion. Trial Registration: Data was obtained from Haukeland university hospital the patient registry system No. 2017/12470. Start of registration was April 1th 2017 and patients included was from 2013 to 15. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-04-07 /pmc/articles/PMC8058187/ /pubmed/33898364 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fped.2021.656939 Text en Copyright © 2021 Elgen, Lygre, Greve, Griffiths and Heggestad. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Pediatrics
Elgen, Irene
Lygre, Ragnhild
Greve, Gottfried
Griffiths, Silja
Heggestad, Torhild
Interdisciplinary Approaches Suggested for Children With Multiple Hospital Referrals Presenting With Non-specific Conditions
title Interdisciplinary Approaches Suggested for Children With Multiple Hospital Referrals Presenting With Non-specific Conditions
title_full Interdisciplinary Approaches Suggested for Children With Multiple Hospital Referrals Presenting With Non-specific Conditions
title_fullStr Interdisciplinary Approaches Suggested for Children With Multiple Hospital Referrals Presenting With Non-specific Conditions
title_full_unstemmed Interdisciplinary Approaches Suggested for Children With Multiple Hospital Referrals Presenting With Non-specific Conditions
title_short Interdisciplinary Approaches Suggested for Children With Multiple Hospital Referrals Presenting With Non-specific Conditions
title_sort interdisciplinary approaches suggested for children with multiple hospital referrals presenting with non-specific conditions
topic Pediatrics
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8058187/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33898364
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fped.2021.656939
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