Our Mission
We create opportunities for organizations to promote excellence in the continuum of care for children with medical complexity and their families.
Our Vision
The Pediatric Complex Care Association will ensure all children with medical complexity reach their fullest potential.
We offer member support and an opportunity to join a combined effort to promote excellence in care for medically fragile children.
The Pediatric Complex Care Association (PCCA) is a national non-profit organization that serves to create opportunities for organizations to collaborate, network, share innovations, advocate, and promote excellence in the continuum of care for children with medical complexity and their families. Our community of members includes approximately 45 organizations for medically complex children who require post-acute and long-term care. We offer support to our members and an opportunity to join our united effort to promote excellence in care for the children we serve. Through a range of exclusive programs and benefits for members-only, PCCA offers numerous opportunities to participate in innovative research and benchmarking, professional leadership education, the development of evidence-based practice guidelines, and advocacy on behalf of our members and the children we serve. All of our programs are guided by the PCCA vision: that all children with medical complexity reach their fullest potential.
The Pediatric Complex Care Association is dedicated to:
- Serving organizations that provide post-acute and long-term care to children with medical complexity
- Developing benchmarks and quality indicators
- Delivering cutting-edge educational and networking opportunities
- Conducting research to develop evidence-based standards of care
- Providing a platform for peer-to- peer support
- Providing advocacy services to represent the needs of members and the children and families they serve before government and regulatory agencies, professional societies, and the public
- Promoting partnerships, collaboration and communication among disciplines and organizations in the broad field of pediatric complex care
The Pediatric Complex Care Association’s core values:
- Child and Family Centered
- Advocacy
- Collaboration
- Excellence
- Innovation
- Knowledge
History
The Pediatric Complex Care Association began in the early 1990s as the Building Bridges Network, which linked pediatric post-acute and residential facilities around the country. Founded by Sister Katherine Smith, PhD, RN of the Sisters of Providence in Portland Oregon, Building Bridges provided opportunities for ongoing education and networking through a series of conferences. In addition, the organization collaborated with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to develop a Pediatric Minimum Data Set (MDS) tool and developed a document defining Model Practices in Pediatric Nursing facilities.
Recognizing that there are greater opportunities to promote excellence in caring for children with medical complexity, a core group of members then created a more formal membership organization to support the organizations caring for these children while expanding service offerings for members. In 2012, this group created the organizational structure, bylaws, and legal documentation for a new nonprofit, the Association of Providers for Children with Complex Medical Needs, Inc. In early 2013, the Board voted to simplify the Association’s name and now does business as the Pediatric Complex Care Association (PCCA).
The Pediatric Complex Care Association is grateful for the initial vision of Sister Katherine Smith, PhD, RN, and the support provided by the Sisters of Providence and Providence Health & Services.
