Parents of Children With Medical Complexity Are Essential Health Care Personnel

Abstract

* Abbreviations: CDC — : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CMC — : children with medical complexity COVID-19 — : coronavirus disease 2019 The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has created a national and global crisis. The United States has invested tremendous effort and resources to fast track severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 vaccines from conception to market in 1 year, an amazing scientific achievement. Public health experts are now leading the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that health care personnel be offered COVID-19 vaccination during the early phases of distribution. Health care personnel are broadly defined and include emergency medical service personnel, nurses and nursing assistants, physicians, technicians, therapists, dentists, dental hygienists and assistants, phlebotomists, pharmacists, students and trainees, contractual staff, dietary and food services staff, environmental services staff, and administrative staff. We strongly recommend that parents and family caregivers (collectively referred to as parents in this article) of children with medical complexity (CMC) be included in the early phases of vaccine distribution because they serve as essential frontline health care personnel. CMC have significant chronic health conditions that involve multiple organ systems, substantial health service needs, major functional limitations, and high health resource use. They have high levels of medical fragility, technology dependencies (tracheostomies, ventilators, feeding tubes, intrathecal baclofen infusion systems, and others), and psychosocial complexities. We identify CMC as those who have ≥3 organ systems affected (≥3 Feudtner … Address correspondence to Nancy A. Murphy, MD, FAAP, FAAPMR, Division of Pediatric Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Utah, 81 North Mario Capecchi Dr, Salt Lake City, UT 84113. E-mail: nancy.murphy{at}hsc.utah.edu