Right Care for Children: Top Five Do's and Don'ts.

Underuse and overuse of medical interventions, failure to use interventions known to be effective, and provision of tests or interventions in which benefits do not exceed harms are types of low-value care. The Lown Institute's Right Care Alliance Children's Health Council identified five "do" recommendations that highlight underuse and five "don't" recommendations that highlight overuse in children's health care. The five "do" recommendations include: do provide access to long-acting reversible contraception for adolescents, do use nonpharmacologic interventions first for treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, do discuss quality of life for children with complex medical conditions using a shared decision-making model and access resources such as palliative care subspecialists, do promote childhood literacy development by providing free, age-appropriate books in clinical settings, and do screen for socioeconomic status of the patient and family and provide access to community health and wellness resources. The five "don't" recommendations include: don't routinely prescribe antibiotics in children two to 12 years of age with a middle ear infection, don't perform computed tomography of the head for children with minor head trauma, don't use albuterol in children with bronchiolitis, don't routinely screen for hyperlipidemia in children and adolescents, and don't routinely perform preparticipation sports evaluations. These 10 examples of underuse and overuse were identified with the intent of improving health care value and promoting "Right Care."