Complex Pediatric Care
Coordinated home care for children whose needs cross breathing, feeding, neurology and daily living.
Overview
What This Service Includes
Some children's needs do not sit in one category. Breathing, feeding, seizures, medications, mobility and comfort all have to be held together at once, by the same people, in the same day. Complex pediatric care is home care built for that reality — one plan, one team, and support that follows the whole child rather than treating each need as a separate errand.
- Home care for children whose medical needs span several body systems at once.
- Care that brings breathing, feeding, medication and daily living support into one plan of care.
- An approach shaped around the whole child rather than around a single diagnosis.
- Close partnership with the family and with the child's physicians and specialists.
Who it is for
Who This May Help
Situations where families often ask about this kind of care. None of them establishes that a child needs it — that comes from their physician.
- A child may be followed by several specialists for needs that overlap.
- Some children depend on more than one kind of equipment or medical routine each day.
- A child may have a condition that affects breathing, feeding and neurological function together.
- Some children have come home from a long hospital stay with needs in several areas at once.
- A family may be coordinating many appointments, orders and routines and be looking for support.
Care at home
Common Tasks and Support Provided
What care may involve day to day, always following your child’s physician-ordered plan of care.
- Supporting multiple care routines across the day in line with the child's plan of care.
- Watching for how needs interact — how feeding affects breathing, how medications affect comfort.
- Keeping thorough records that give the child's specialists a clear picture of life at home.
- Helping the family hold a complicated routine together without losing the shape of their day.
- Communicating between the family and the child's medical team as needs change.
Getting started
How In-Home Care Works
You do not need paperwork ready, and you do not need to know whether your child qualifies before you call.
- 1
You reach out
Call us, or request a screening online. You do not need paperwork ready, and you do not need to know whether your child qualifies.
- 2
We talk with you
A member of our team talks through your child's needs, your Medicaid situation, where you are in Georgia, and whether your child currently has a provider.
- 3
Nurse intake
If it looks like we may be able to help, a nurse meets with you and your family to complete the intake documentation together.
- 4
Submission to Medicaid
The GAPP request is submitted for review. This is the point at which the decision moves to Georgia Medicaid.
- 5
The decision, then care
Georgia Medicaid reviews the request. If services are approved, we work with you to begin care at home.
Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Our child sees six specialists. Does home care coordinate with all of them?
Care at home follows the plan of care and the orders written for your child, and what is observed at home is communicated back to the child's medical team. Families often find that a clear record from home helps their specialists see the whole picture.
How is a plan of care put together for a child with this many needs?
It is built from the child's physician orders and developed with the child's medical team, then reviewed and updated as the child's needs change. It is specific to one child rather than a standard template.
We are still in the hospital. When should we start looking at home care?
Many families begin the conversation while discharge planning is still underway, so there is time to understand the options and gather documentation. Your hospital's discharge planner or case manager is usually the best starting point, and we are glad to talk with them.
Does complex care mean our home becomes a hospital?
It should not feel that way. The point of bringing care home is that a child gets to live in a family, not a facility. Care is arranged to fit into the household's life as much as the child's medical needs allow.
Related guides and resources
- A Parent's Guide to Brain Injury in Children
An injury to the brain after a period of typical development, often changing movement, thinking and behavior at once.
- A Parent's Guide to Spinal Cord Injury in Children
Damage to the spinal cord that interrupts signals between the brain and the body below the level of injury.
- Your Guide to the Georgia Pediatric Program
What GAPP is, who it serves, how requests are reviewed, and how to start a conversation.
- The Parent Caregiver Pathway
What the parent caregiver route involves, and why it is not available to every family.
About this information
This page is general information for families, written in plain language by the WeLIVE Healthcare team. It is not medical advice and does not replace the judgment of your child’s physician, who knows your child. Always talk with your child’s care team about their specific needs.
Let's Build the Right Care Plan for Your Child.
Tell us a little about your child and our team will follow up to talk through what this care could look like at home.
Requesting a screening is not an application for Medicaid and does not determine eligibility.