All Children Deserve Wellness-Focused Health Care

Wilmington, Delaware
Wednesday, September 30, 2009 @ 01:53 PM EDT

As our elected officials deliberate what shape health reform will take, we at Nemours/ Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children ask, "What's in it for the kids?" This nation needs a health system that not only ensures all children will get care when they're sick, but one that does its utmost to keep them healthy.

The time is right to encourage investment in prevention strategies for children that reach into their homes, schools and communities. Nemours has developed a model that combines a tradition of excellence in pediatric health care with a community-based approach to preventing disease. To our knowledge, no other children's health system in the nation is making this kind of investment in prevention. Although research shows that prevention efforts targeting children can both improve health in the short term and encourage healthy lifestyles into adulthood, only a paltry 5 percent of health dollars are spent on prevention.

This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to move our system from a focus on sickness to a focus on wellness. We need to change the way we think about health and health care for children. Health coverage for all children should not be a luxury in this country. We have already acknowledged that every child has a right to an education, and as a society, we pay for it. Children's health deserves the same support. After all, the money we spend on children's health is an investment that pays off for 70 or 80 years, not only in productive lives, but also in avoidance of long-term health costs. No other health expenditure has that kind of return on investment. The needs of children must be front and center in this debate.

Nemours' children's health network advocates for policies aimed at improving the health of all children, not just those whom we serve directly.

We support the following as essential components of national health reform legislation:

• All children deserve certain basic benefits. Health reform must create and adequately fund a standard benefit for every child that includes health promotion, preventive and primary-care services, including oral, developmental and mental health. In addition, there must be benefits to support the care of children with special health care needs -- those diseases and conditions that children endure their whole lives.
• All children deserve a "medical home" -- a pediatrician and other providers and advocates to assure the ongoing management of their health, including prevention strategies in the office and links to community-based prevention programs, on-time immunizations and anticipatory guidance to parents/guardians.
• We need to reward quality and efficiency in caring for children. Organizations and individuals should be supported in developing models that improve the health of children while doing so in more cost-effective ways.
• Primary prevention means it never happened. We need a national strategy and mandatory funding for prevention. Since certain diseases, like obesity, have roots at least in part in societal factors, they need solutions that reach into all sectors of society -- schools, neighborhoods, child care centers, businesses, etc.
• We need nutrition labeling of standard menu items at chain restaurants. Just as food labels are required in the grocery store, nutrition information in restaurants will help parents understand and make decisions about what they're feeding their kids.

There is disagreement, to be sure, about how we pay for a health system that covers everyone.

Even as we debate public versus private plans, there can be nothing but consensus that, when it comes to kids, the emphasis should be on prevention. Let's create an action plan that makes a difference. We are at a critical turning point. For future generations to benefit, we have to care now.

modified: Monday, October 05, 2009 @ 01:53 PM EDT
created: Monday, October 05, 2009 @ 01:53 PM EDT

About Nemours

Nemours, one of the nation’s largest pediatric health systems, is dedicated to achieving higher standards in children’s health. Nemours offers an integrated spectrum of clinical treatment coupled with research, advocacy, and educational health and prevention services extending to all families in the communities it serves. Starting with Alfred I. duPont’s bequest over seventy years ago, Nemours has grown into a multi-dimensional organization offering personalized clinical and preventive care focused on children.

Nemours owns and operates the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware and major children’s specialty clinics in Delaware (Wilmington), Florida (Jacksonville, Orlando and Pensacola), Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and Bryn Mawr) and New Jersey (Atlantic City and Voorhees). Having recently received preliminary approval from the State of Florida, Nemours will establish a new full-service children’s hospital as part of an integrated pediatric health campus in Orlando. KidsHealth.org, the world’s most visited pediatric health care Web site for parents, kids and teens, is a project of Nemours.

Nemours employs over 4,400 individuals, including 430 pediatric physicians, specialists and surgeons who cared for approximately a quarter of a million children in 2007. The organization’s goal is to align with parents, physicians, community leaders, children’s advocates and elected officials to ensure optimal wellness for every child. Additional information about Nemours can be found at www.nemours.org.