Background: Many organizations maintain data on children with special health care needs in Washington, DC, yet there is no single data source on children with disabilities. Estimates suggest that this group represent anywhere from 8-18% of children under the age of 22. Purpose: Develop a database system of children with special needs by linking data from other organizations to identify and describe children’s characteristics, barriers to care, availability of providers, and measure costs of services. Methods: Using it’s universal newborn screening program as the backbone, other data sets are linked with OMCH data to flag children labeled with a condition. Examples of organizations participating in the linking process include Early Intervention, Medicaid, public schools, Income Maintenance, Immunization, and foster care. Findings: Linking data from multiple data sources requires political, planning, and technical skills. Lasting agreements require that parties feel comfortable with both the process and the outcomes. System is using MS SQL Server and ColdFusion to develop page-based Web applications. Data linkage involves using a variety of automated and manual procedures to match records with diverse health-and-educational-based systems. Recommendation: Public health must be able to identify and monitor the care of fragile populations. The complexity and cost of the interrelationships between insurers, providers, and families of special needs children demand that organizations need to share data when policy concerns overlap.
Learning Objectives: Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to: 1. Identify a development process to share data and build a database system for special needs population. 2. Conceptualize how to link data without having common identifiers. 3. Understand how database design can impact data reporting, 4. Understand ways to classify disability in order to work effectively with both health and educational planners.
Keywords: Children With Special Needs, Health Management Information Systems
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
Disclosure not received
Relationship: Not Received.