# Bringing Clarity to Complex Pediatric Perioperative Care: Development of a Novel Pathway to Support Goal-Directed, Patient-Centered Care

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a new approach to pediatric surgery care that ensures treatments align with family goals and patient needs.

## Contribution

A novel collaborative process integrating palliative care consultation to support goal-directed, patient-centered pediatric perioperative care.

## Key findings

- A collaborative process was developed to align surgical outcomes with family goals.
- Longitudinal engagement of palliative care consultants improves patient-centered care.
- The process addresses a critical gap in perioperative care for children with complex conditions.

## Abstract

Advances in pediatric care have resulted in the ability to offer operative care that can result in outcomes that diverge from goals of care. We describe the development of a collaborative process that leverages palliative care consultation to ensure that complex surgical care remains family-centered and goal-directed.

Background: Advances in pediatric perioperative care have supported the safe provision of increasingly complex surgical care to patients with complicated diseases and abnormal physiology. This has led to the possible misalignment of the impact of potential surgical outcomes and goals of care. Methods / Objectives: We describe the development of a novel process that leverages the combination of longitudinal engagement of pediatric palliative care consultants and multidisciplinary care planning to ensure that perioperative care remains patient-centered and goal-directed for all children, especially children with complex baseline disease. Conclusions: Our novel process should be considered a solution to a crictial gap in pediatric perioperative care.