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Colleen A. Kraft, MD, Richmond Pediatric Associates, Inc., 7347 Bell Creek Rd., Mechanicsville, VA 23111, 804-307-6522, Docmom3@aol.com, Fran Gallagher, MEd, Medical Home Plus, Inc., 7347 Bell Creek Rd., Mechanicsville, VA 23111, and Barbara Harding, RN, Department of Pediatrics, Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, PO Box 980021, 307 College Street, Richmond, VA 23298.
The Medical Home is a structure and process of care which is accessible, family-centered, comprehensive, coordinated, compassionate, and culturally sensitive. The Medical Home recognizes the needs as well as the expertise of families of Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (CYSHCN). The goals related to CYSHCN outlined in Healthy People 2010 start with the first goal of every child being cared for in a Medical Home. Primary care practices are interested in improving their ability to care for CYSHCN as a medical home. Barriers of lack of time, poor reimbursement, and no systematic method of improvement keep primary care practices from improving their capacity as medical homes. The Medical Home Learning Collaborative (MHLC), a program sponsored by MCHB and conducted by the National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality (NICHQ) and the Center for Medical Home Improvement (CMHI), trained teams consisting of three primary care practices together with state Title V staff in eleven states. Three practices in Virginia together with Care Connection for Children took part in the MHLC. Practices worked to make small, tangible improvements in working with their Community Partners, Health Systems, Care Partnership support with parents, Decision Support, Delivery System design, and Clinical Registries for CYSHCN. Virginia has since developed a State Resource Team to work with practices on-site as well as through conference calls to mentor new practices in their desire to improve their ability to be medical homes. New practices complete a Medical Home Index (MHI), a family satisfaction survey, and a staff satisfaction survey. Data is being collected from the practices on the number of ER and hospitalizations for CYSHCN, as well as quality measurements from families. All of the new practices to date have demonstrated improvements in their MHI as well as their family and staff satisfaction surveys. Practices have stated that the continued contact and mentorship of the State Resouce Team has been vital to their ability to improve.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Children With Special Needs, Community-Based Care
Related Web page: N/A
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.