Wishes help keep pediatric patients out of the hospital

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-11/nch-whk111218.php

Public Release: 13-Nov-2018
Nationwide Children's Hospital

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As a member of the Medical Advisory Council of Make-A-Wish America, Anup Patel, MD, section chief of Neurology at Nationwide Children's Hospital, anecdotally could attest that wishes like Cimone's positively affected the patients he saw in the Complex Epilepsy Clinic at Nationwide Children's. As a clinician, he sought evidence to support his hypothesis that these experiences provided children with progressive, life-threatening, or critical illnesses more than hope - that in fact, they had a clinical benefit.

Whatever a child has wished for - a puppy, seeing snow for the first time or to meet their favorite celebrity - a recent study led by Nationwide Children's demonstrates that experiences, or "wishes," granted to pediatric patients can actually reduce health care utilization. In the retrospective study published online by Pediatric Research, patients granted a wish were 2.5 times more likely to have fewer unplanned hospital admissions and 1.9 times more likely not to have to use the emergency department. This led to a decline in cost of care even after accounting for the average cost of the wish.

"My patients have about a one to three percent chance of ever becoming seizure-free. Not every patient of mine who gets a wish is going to come back seizure-free, but they are going to improve," said Dr. Patel. "Their quality of life is going to be better and that might have an indirect impact on their seizures. They may have fewer seizures as a result, or be more likely to take their medications. Moreover, we are able to give them something they would not otherwise get: a break from their illness."

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