A study from Michigan Medicine found that many critically ill or injured children are not being followed up on by their primary care doctors.

There are no “specific guidelines in terms of whether or when a child should follow up with their primary care physician or pediatrician after a stay in the PICU,” prompting the researchers to look more closely at what happens after hospitalization.

They looked at data from “private insurance and Medicaid claims” and found that “just under 25% of patients with public insurance and just under 30% of patients with private insurance had primary care follow up within one week of PICU hospitalization.” Around 9% with public insurance and 10% with private insurance were “seen by a sub-specialist.”

Children who were younger and did not have complex chronic conditions were “more likely to receive timely follow up care from a primary care clinician.” A follow up study will look at the “impact of having that early follow up with subsequent outcomes, including emergency department use and hospital readmissions.”