In regards to: Mercy closing physician guided Mercy Kids Complex & Palliative Care services.  
Lead physician: Dr. Monica Muir 

Directly impacted are the hundreds of children with various complex medical conditions and disabilities in the Saint Louis area requiring multiple specialty doctors as part of their care team. Communication can be challenging and sometimes the goal of care can get lost in translation, especially for a chronically or terminally ill child. At home, this care team is outstanding at thinking outside of the box to help each child avoid the ER. With children who are medically complex, many of them are at a higher risk of getting sick due to their compromised immune systems or they have multiple machines for breathing, feeding, or transportation devices that have to be used. As you can imagine, not only can this be difficult and time consuming, it can put the child at risk of getting ill as well as increase the anxiety of parents. Multiple specialty teams also rely on this palliative care/complex care team to guide them in the right direction, the direction of what each child and their families specifically need. Dr. Muir and her team ensure each child receives the highest level of care tailored specifically to each child while simultaneously lifting a huge weight off of families shoulders because they feel safe, heard, confident, and as though their child is a priority. Having them in their own outpatient space where office visits can be scheduled and phone calls can be made in regards to these children is such an asset to all of our fellow families. Having a physician overseen palliative care service in general is extremely important as they know these patients to provide expertise regarding clinical medical management, complex symptom management, goals of care discussions, or end of life care. 

What is directly impacted and at risk are these children and their families. These children, due to unfortunate circumstances, haven’t been given a fair shot at what one may consider a “normal” childhood. Not only that, but this team assures each child is comfortable throughout their disease processes. Dr. Muir and her team are each child’s advocate; they are the loudest voice in the room fighting for our children who don’t always have a voice of their own. 

Losing Dr. Muir and her team is like losing personal, real life, guardian angels. It is imperative we fight for her and for these children as she is the only doctor in the area who sees children in this capacity. Losing her means we lose the only outpatient children’s complex and palliative care in the Saint Louis area unless she can build a new practice elsewhere, as well as Mercy’s all together. Even then, battling insurance companies to be able to see her elsewhere may be a challenge and take a significant amount of time.  Mercy is closing the program towards the end of April. As of 3/10/23, some Mercy staff has been informed that Mercy is “revamping” their program with nurses only. Having physician oversight to a program like this, especially, is imperative to quality and continuity of care. This has not been explained to the families of the children that receive care from Dr. Muir’s office. This is why it’s so incredibly important to support her and our children now!!