Background: Pain following surgery for cardiac disease is ubiquitous, and optimal management is important. Despite this, there is large practice variation. To address this, the Paediatric Acute Care Cardiology Collaborative undertook the effort to create this clinical practice guideline. Methods: A panel of experts consisting of paediatric cardiologists, advanced practice practitioners, pharmacists, a paediatric cardiothoracic surgeon, and a paediatric cardiac anaesthesiologist was convened. The literature was searched for relevant articles and Collaborative sites submitted centre-specific protocols for postoperative pain management. Using the modified Delphi technique, recommendations were generated and put through iterative Delphi rounds to achieve consensus Results: 60 recommendations achieved consensus and are included in this guideline. They address guideline use, pain assessment, general considerations, preoperative considerations, intraoperative considerations, regional anaesthesia, opioids, opioid-sparing, non-opioid medications, non-pharmaceutical pain management, and discharge considerations. Conclusions: Postoperative pain among children following cardiac surgery is currently an area of significant practice variability despite a large body of literature and the presence of centre-specific protocols. Central to the recommendations included in this guideline is the concept that ideal pain management begins with preoperative counselling and continues through to patient discharge. Overall, the quality of evidence supporting recommendations is low. There is ongoing need for research in this area, particularly in paediatric populations.

Family-centered rounding has emerged as the gold standard for inpatient paediatrics rounds due to its association with improved family and staff satisfaction and reduction of harmful errors. Little is known about family-centered rounding in subspecialty paediatric settings, including paediatric acute care cardiology. In this qualitative, single centre study, we conducted semi-structured interviews with providers and caregivers eliciting their attitudes toward family-centered rounding. An a priori recruitment approach was used to optimise diversity in reflected opinions. A brief demographic survey was completed by participants. We completed thematic analysis of transcribed interviews using grounded theory. In total, 38 interviews representing the views of 48 individuals (11 providers, 37 caregivers) were completed. Three themes emerged: rounds as a moment of mutual accountability, caregivers’ empathy for providers, and providers’ objections to family-centered rounding. Providers’ objections were further categorised into themes of assumptions about caregivers, caregiver choices during rounds, and risk for exacerbation of bias and inequity. Caregivers and providers in the paediatric acute care cardiology setting echoed some previously described attitudes toward family-centered rounding. Many of the challenges surrounding family-centered rounding might be addressed through access to training for caregivers and providers alike. Hospitals should invest in systems to facilitate family-centered rounding if they choose to implement this model of care as the current state risks erosion of provider–caregiver relationship.

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Introduction: Disparities in healthcare outcomes are well described among patients of different races and ethnicities including pediatric cardiology. Multicenter studies examining these outcomes are lacking in pediatric acute care cardiology. We hypothesize that Black and Hispanic patients admitted to pediatric acute care cardiology units have increased hospital and acute care encounter length of stay (LOS) and complication rates compared to their White and non-Hispanic peers. Methods: Utilizing the Pediatric Acute Care Cardiology Collaborative registry, we examined all acute care cardiology unit encounters from 2/1/2019 to 7/30/2021 ending in discharge to home or death. Hospitalizations were categorized by race and ethnicity. In-hospital complications included health-care acquired infections, iatrogenic incidents, pneumonia, sepsis, seizures and stroke. Data were analyzed for differences in LOS and complication rates using chi-square and ANOVA testing. We used Bonferroni correction to establish a significance threshold of 0.007. Results: Analysis included 30,404 hospitalizations from 29 centers. There were 16,233 White (70%), 4,533 Black (19%), 919 Asian (4%) and 1,629 other races (7%) encounters. There were 23,592 (78%) non-Hispanic and 4,583 (15%) Hispanic encounters. Black patients had higher rates of premature birth (21.4%) and low birth weight (10.7%), compared to White patients (15.6% and 5.9% respectively, p<0.0001). Both non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic patients had longer total hospital and acute care LOS than non-Hispanic White patients. Complication rates analyzed by race trended towards significance between Black and White patients, and Hispanic patients had a higher complication rate than non-Hispanics. ( Table 1 ) Conclusions: Despite improved outcomes for patients with congenital and acquired heart disease, significant racial and ethnic disparities continue to exist. Directed efforts are needed to achieve equitable results.