Child Welfare: The Phantom of the Health Care System

Abstract

Sir.—The problem of infants requiring prolonged hospitalization for lack of appropriate discharge placements has resulted in a new population of children receiving medical care. These children have been called babies, and their numbers are steadily increasing. On a given day in Philadelphia, Pa, 70 boarder babies are in hospitals awaiting discharge. They limit access to medical care for other children by occupying beds and increasing hospitals' operating costs. This is one of most insidious side effects of current crack cocaine epidemic, resulting in abandonment of numerous infants in hospitals. It has resulted in what one author describes as the youngest of homeless.1 A June 1989 survey1by Child Welfare League of America of hospitals in five American cities identified 304 boarder babies in 54 hospitals reporting cases. At least 69% of identified babies showed signs of impairment due