Evaluation of Continuity of Care of Children With Special Health Needs

April 6, 2023 updated by: IRCCS Burlo Garofolo

Children With Special Health Needs. Evaluation of Continuity of Care and Integrated Hospital-territory Care Pathways in Friuli Venezia Giulia

Children and adolescents with special health care needs represent a small but relevant subset of the pediatric population due to high costs for the health care system, risk of lower quality of care, unmet health care needs, and negative health outcomes. Coordination of care and continuity of care are essential issues of appropriate care for these patients, as showed also by the "Special Needs Kids" project, carried out in Emilia Romagna. This project showed the potential for family pediatricians (FP) in Italy to serve as care coordinators and facilitate the implementation of integrated care pathways for children with special health care needs. In Friuli-Venezia Giulia (FVG), a system of "continuity of care" for patients with special needs was developed and implemented. This system integrate hospital and community care in a network involving also FPs, General Practitioner and different actors of social and health services. The aim of this study is to prospectively evaluate the continuity of care provided to children and adolescents with special health needs residing in the FVG region.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Completed

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
51

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Italy
      • Trieste, Italy, 34137
        • IRCCS Burlo Garofolo

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

1 day to 17 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Sampling Method

Probability Sample

Study Population

The study involves pediatric patients with special health care needs recruited at IRCCS Burlo Garofolo over a 12-month period and followed prospectively for the next 12 months (follow-up)

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Subjects with special health care needs requiring continuity of care and integrated home care
  • Age between 0 to 17 years
  • Residence in FVG region
  • Outpatient, inpatient or emergency care admission at the IRCCS Burlo Garofolo hospital, Trieste, Italy

Exclusion Criteria:

-

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
To assess health care providers activities using the Special Needs Kids instrument
Time Frame: Through study completion, an average of 12 months
The Special Needs Kids (SpeNK)-FP instrument includes eight descriptive items aiming to collect information about the activity performed by the FP for the patients, involving the child or the family and including visit at the clinic, phone contact, ecc. In particular, SpeNK-FP evaluates: patient's clinical and social complexity on a three levels scale; requests or problems addressed; needs for care coordination; activities carried out by the FP; involvement of any other professionals in the care coordination activity; time spent for care coordination; FP's appraisal about the outcomes occurred and prevented with the care coordination activity.
Through study completion, an average of 12 months
To assess parents' perspective on continuity of care using the Special Needs Kids Questionnaire
Time Frame: At 10 months after enrollment
The Special Needs Kids Questionnaire (SpeNK-Q) is a 20 items (with 5-point response option) questionnaire, evaluating parents' perspective about their relationship and interactions with: 1) the FP; 2) the main care coordinator; 3) the network of health care providers and services. SpeNK-Q includes two open questions aiming at identifying: 1) the person who is in charge of most of the child's health; (2) the person who coordinates the child's health care. The 5-point response option are: from "fully disagree" to "fully agree" for questions 1-7 concerning FP (lower scores indicates a worse outcome); form "never or almost never" to "always or almost always" for questions 8-20 concerning the network of health care providers and services.
At 10 months after enrollment

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
IRCCS Burlo Garofolo

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Elisa Zanello, MSC, IRCCS materno infantile Burlo Garofolo

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
September 26, 2018

Primary Completion (Actual)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
October 31, 2021

Study Completion (Actual)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
October 31, 2021

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
March 24, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
April 6, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
April 7, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
April 7, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
April 6, 2023

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
April 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • RC 17/16

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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