Health System Requirements for Pediatric Liver Transplantation

Pediatric liver transplant (LT) is a complex procedure that has distinct phases of care with vastly different health system requirements. To deliver the highest-value care (defined as quality divided by cost) to the patient, the pediatric LT program should consider efforts to standardize care, minimize complications, and continually improve care. This requires the program to measure outcomes, stratify patients by risk, decrease barriers for collaboration, and ensure that the program can acquire new knowledge through original research, learning health systems, or quality improvement efforts. Given that the needs of the patients vary greatly over their phases of care, transplant programs may benefit from recognizing the distinct needs of patients at each phase of care and the commensurate value-generating strategies for each phase.