Why the Individual Provider Approach to Pediatric Palliative Care Consultation Exacerbates Healthcare Disparities: A Moral Argument for Standard Referral Criteria

Why the Individual Provider Approach to Pediatric Palliative Care Consultation Exacerbates Healthcare Disparities: A Moral Argument for Standard Referral Criteria

Gouda SR; Hoehn KS

Journal of Clinical Ethics

2022

Palliative Care; Quality of Life; Child; Healthcare Disparities; Human; Morals; Palliative Care; Referral and Consultation

Pediatric palliative care is specialized medical care for children who live with serious and life-limiting illnesses, with the central goal to improve quality of life for both children and their families. Presently, a majority of pediatric palliative care referrals are based on the traditional consultative model, in which primary providers serve as the gatekeepers to palliative care access. It is well-known that racial and ethnic healthcare disparities exist across the continuum of care, fraught with healthcare providers' biases that impact the care delivered. This includes the referral practices, allocation and utilization of palliative care services, and leaving vulnerable children and families with potentially unmet palliative care needs. We make the moral argument that the establishment of standard referral criteria for pediatric palliative care services is one simple step that must be taken to begin to address and hopefully ameliorate the impact of providers' biases and disparities that exist within pediatric palliative care.<ovid:br/><ovid:br/> Copyright 2022 The Journal of Clinical Ethics. All rights reserved.

Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).

March List 2023