Pediatric Rehabilitation Access and Utilization: A Multidisciplinary Perspective 1955

Rehabilitation interventions for children and adolescents with impairments and limitations across multiple diagnoses demonstrate efficacy both short and long-term. Still, children are unable to reach their potential without access to and utilization of these critical services.  While barriers and facilitators exist for the families and for the organizations, there are many possible improvements to health care delivery that may improve rehabilitation implementation.

Comprehensive pediatric care requires rehabilitation access.  Nearly one in five children were found to have unmet rehabilitative therapy and mobility needs in a nation-wide study using the data from the 2009-2010 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs.Of these children with unmet needs, 15.4% had an unrecognized need for rehabilitative services not reported by parents. Research in specific populations such as cancer, suggest a much lower access rate as less that 27% of children had PT services inpatient, and only 54% of children from a commercially insured database received OT or PT during their cancer treatment.
In this presentation, we will share three different hospitals’ experiences regarding access and utilization through data, administrator, and clinician experiences. Factors related to access such as demographics, language, geographic location, socioeconomic status, insurance, and cost will be presented. We will also share provider perspectives on issues related to access and possible solutions. Finally, we will present different state and federal policies and they may impact pediatric rehabilitation access and utilization.