Moving from pediatric to adult care can be hard. The Complex Care Clinic at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center is here to make it easier.
If you have a chronic childhood condition, chances are you have a medical team that you trust. As you near adulthood, you may worry about how your care will change when you move to new adult providers and a new health care center. You may be asking yourself:
- Will my new physician understand my medical history and the unique challenges I’ve already faced?
- Will the program coordinate my care and collaborate with other specialists?
- Will my pediatric team communicate with my new doctor to make it easier?
- How will my parents or caregivers be involved, or will I make medical decisions on my own?
- How will my treatment change as I age?
At Ohio State’s Complex Care Clinic, we understand your concerns, and while your condition may be considered complex, our goal is to make things simpler for you, now and in the years to come.
What are the benefits of using Ohio State’s Complex Care Clinic?
At some point, every adolescent or young adult with a serious or chronic medical condition transitions to an adult health care setting. Our Complex Care Clinic was created to help you build more independence, give you more information about your condition and individualize the type of care you’ll receive as an adult. Depending on your health and comfort level, the move to independent adult care can be gradual or happen quite quickly.
In the Complex Care Clinic, experts from different medical specialties work together to make sure every aspect of your health is considered –– and we take care of you as a person, not just a diagnosis.
What conditions are treated in the Complex Care Clinic?
Some of the most common diagnoses we treat include:
- Congenital heart disease
- Intellectual and developmental disabilities
- Cerebral palsy
- Spina bifida
- Pediatric-onset disabilities
- Neurodevelopmental disabilities
- Genetic disorders
- Congenital disorders
- Williams syndrome
- DiGeorge syndrome (22q11.2 deletion)
If your diagnosis isn’t listed above, but it’s a chronic condition that started in childhood, it may still be something we can treat in our clinic. After all, as one of the nation’s largest academic health care centers, we have specialists from nearly every medical field.
Do I qualify for Ohio State's Complex Care Clinic?
Our clinic is open to people who meet these criteria or with permission of the physician:
- Diagnosed with an intellectual or developmental disability, congenital or genetically acquired syndrome, or pediatric-onset disability
– AND – - Requires care from multiple types of medical experts
– AND – - Depends on one or more of these types of technology:
- Tracheostomy
- Gastrostomy
- Assistive devices, such as wheelchairs, durable medical equipment or augmentative communication tools
How to make an appointment with the Complex Care Clinic
To schedule an appointment, call us at 614-293-8054. Your primary care provider can also make a referral.
You do not have to transfer all your care to us. For some patients, we will serve as their new primary care clinic. For others, (especially those who travel from far away), we may become consultants, helping to provide education and guidance to your doctors back home. In these cases, we will work with your usual doctor to coordinate treatment between our clinic and your regular care team.
Please specify when scheduling whether you want a consultation or want to establish new primary care with Ohio State.
Physician guidelines for referral
Ohio State’s Complex Care Clinic is appropriate for those transitioning into adult care, including those with technology dependency (i.e. wheelchair, tracheostomy, feeding tube or pacemaker), with conditions including:
- Congenital heart disease
- 22q11 deletion (DiGeorge syndrome)
- 7q11 deletion (Williams syndrome)
- Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome)
- Turner (Noonan) syndrome
- Myotonic dystrophy or Marfan syndrome
- Ehler-Danlos syndrome
- Loeys-Dietz syndrome
The Complex Care Clinic team
Katrina Johnson, MD
Co-Director, Primary Care
Jessica Prokup, MD
Co-Director, Multispecialty Clinic Director
Amy Poling, MSN Ed., RN, LSN
Case Manager