Early Intervention Providers
Who Are Early Intervention (EI) Service Providers?
What is a Medical Home?
What is the Role of EI Service Providers in a Medical Home?
Support Care Coordination
Inform and Educate Primary Health Care Providers about EI services
Inform and Support Families
Sample Communication Forms
Other Resources
Who are Early Intervention (EI) Service Providers?
Specialists who work with children birth to three years of age in one of the following early intervention services:
- Assistive technology devices and assistive technology services
- Audiology
- Early Identification, screening, and assessments services
- Family Resources Coordination
- Family training, counseling, and home visits
- Health services
- Medical services only for diagnostic or evaluation purposes
- Nursing services
- Nutrition services
- Occupational therapy
- Physical therapy
- Psychological services
- Social work services
- Special instruction
- Speech-language pathology
- Transportation and related costs necessary to enable a child and family to receive early intervention services
- Vision services
BACK TO TOP
What is a Medical Home?
Understanding the role of the medical home in the coordination of care for children with special health needs and their families is critical for all medical and non-medical service providers who work with the child and family.
A medical home is not a building, but rather a team approach to providing comprehensive primary health care services in a high-quality and cost-effective manner. In a medical home the child or youth, his or her family, primary care physician, and other health professionals develop a trusting partnership based on mutual responsibility and respect for each other's expertise. Partners share complete information with each other.
Together, families, health care professionals and community service providers (including EI service providers) identify and access all medical and non-medical services needed to help the child and family.
BACK TO TOP
What is the Role of EI Service Providers in a Medical Home?
Care Coordination
Infants and young children with special health care needs often receive a variety of medical and non-medical services which may include: primary health care, specialty medical care, and early intervention services from several allied health or other non-medical providers. Early intervention services may be provided within a Birth-to-Three program, a hospital setting, a school setting, or provided by practitioners in private practice settings. A child may be enrolled in one or more EI practice settings and have a variety of different EI providers supporting the family and child. In such situations open communication between the family and all of the providers is an essential element to coordinated systems of care. Coordinated systems of care prevent duplication of services and improve overall quality of service.
What information do EI Providers and Primary Health Care Providers Need from each other for care coordination? Care coordination for children with special needs is enhanced when medical home primary care provider and EI service providers know what information is helpful to each other. The following tips are adapted from The Medical Home and Early Intervention Programs report: www.medicalhomeinfo.org/health/Downloads/EIBrochureF.pdf
What EI service providers want to know from primary health care providers
- Medical and developmental history for the child
- Diagnosis if available, or summary of concerns the primary health care provider may have regarding the child’s health, development or functional performance
- List of medications prescribed for the child
- Summary of concerns regarding the family’s social, financial and other resource needs
- List of additional medical specialists or medical services important to the child’s health and medical management
- Major changes in medical services or health conditions that have direct implication for services provided by EI service providers
What primary health care providers want to know from EI service providers
- Acknowledgement that the EI program or service provider received the referral
- Identification of challenges or inability to contact the family following receipt of referral
- Findings of the EI assessments and evaluations
- Initiation dates/s of EI services and interventions
- Copy of the EI services plan (IFSP) or individual provider’s treatment plan; consider a coversheet with bulleted list of services to be provided for the child and the family
- Progress or lack of progress in the intervention program
- Disposition of services including: program eligibility, change in service plan, or discharge from services
- Contact information for the EI service program and providers working with the child and family
- Communication regarding medical concerns noted by EI providers
See Sample Communication forms for examples of how Family Resources Coordinators and other EI providers share information with primary care providers.
BACK TO TOP
Inform and Educate Primary Health Care Providers of EI Services
EI service providers have a role in assuring that primary health care providers in their community are informed about EI services and points of access to these services for children and their families. The bulleted points below are linked to tools and resources for informing and educating primary health care provider about EI services in Washington State.
What primary health care providers want to know about early intervention:
Consider using the following opportunities for assuring that primary health care providers are informed about local and statewide EI services:
- Partner with your county Lead FRC and/or CSHCN Coordinator (Local Health Jurisdiction) to inform and educate local primary health care providers about EI services
- Partner with your county Medical Home Team (as available in your county)
- Attend and participate in your Local Interagency Community Council to partner with local EI programs on activities to support medical home practice ad coordinated services of care
http://del.wa.gov/publications/esit/docs/ContactsDirectory.pdf
- Announce and market your website (See examples: Boyer Children’s Clinic, Spokane Guild School)
- Include primary health care providers on the distribution list for your program newsletter or other informational publications
- Recruit a local health care provider to your program advisory board
- Consider meeting with local primary health providers and their office staff to inform them about your program and services
- Include your program brochure when sending patient reports to the primary care provider; particularly if this is the first time your program has received a referral from the primary health care provider
BACK TO TOP
Inform and Support Families
What families want to know
- Explanation of medical home
- Part C EI system in Washington State and point of access
http://del.wa.gov/development/esit/Default.aspx
- Resources and tips for establishing a medical home for their child with special health care needs
- Tools to support care coordination and communication with various providers
Family Health Hotline - a program of WithinReach
Toll-free, statewide child and family health Information and Referral Line from WithinReach. Get connected to services in your community including free or low-cost health insurance, food resources, immunizations, breastfeeding support, family planning services, parenting support, child development screening services, and many other social and health programs, including information for children with special health care needs. Access to interpretive service for 50 languages.
1-800 322-2588 or 1-800-833-6388 (tty relay)
www.withinreachwa.org/hotline
Early Support for Infants and Toddlers (ESIT)
Early Support for Infants and Toddlers (formerly the Infant and Toddler Early Intervention Program or ITEIP) provides services to children birth to 3 who have disabilities and/or developmental delays. ESIT transferred from the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) to the Department of Early Learning on July 1, 2010. This was a move supported by Governor Chris Gregoire, DEL, the Legislature and DSHS. Children with disabilities or developmental delays are, first and foremost, children!
http://del.wa.gov/development/esit/Default.aspx
Washington State Medical Home brochure for Families
In English and Spanish- see Brochures page for more information and downloads.
Building Early Intervention Partnerships With Your Child's Doctor:
Tips from and for Parents
English, Spanish, Cambodian, Chinese, Korean, Laotian, Russian, and Vietnamese. See Brochures page for more information and downloads
Care Organizing Tools
The Care Notebook and Care Organizer are tools for families who have children with special health care needs. Families use Care Notebooks to keep track of important information about their child's health and care. This makes it easier to find and share key information with their child's care team.
http://cshcn.org/planning-record-keeping/care-notebook
BACK TO TOP
Sample Communication Forms
The following are sample forms used to support communication from EI programs and providers to the primary health care provider.
Thank You Acknowledgement of Referral
Infant Toddler Program of Snohomish County
Sent with copy of program brochure
Notice of Screening/Evaluation and Request for Provider Input
Infant Toddler Program of Snohomish County
Informs PCP that patient being evaluated to determine eligibility and need for early intervention services. Team still not able to document a developmental delay but feels child is in need of EI services due to his or her diagnosis. Requests physician to sign and fax back form if in agreement for need for EI services.
Walla Walla Birth - Three Early Intervention Program
Letter sent to doctors along with the ASQ screener the EI program has done that shows the areas of concern.
Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) Report
Infant Toddler Program of Snohomish County
Notice of IFSP development and cover page for service page from patient’s IFSP plan.
Adams County Health Department
Notice of IFSP development and summary of current services patient is receiving with room for additional comments. Two versions:
- IFSP Cover Page Print Version – to be printed so the information can be handwritten in and sent
- IFSP Cover Page electronic Version – lines are left out so information can be typed in and/or emailed.
Referral Form to Other Providers
Adams County Health Department
Referral form to therapists and others for clients in either the CSHCN Program or 0-3 program. Includes Diagnosis/condition, primary home language, remarks, Rx, Insurance information, and other reports/evaluations attached if applicable.
Program Brochures
Infant Toddler Program of Snohomish County
BACK TO TOP
Other Resources
Collaboration with Health Care Providers
Strengthening the Community System of Care for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs and Their Families: Collaboration Between Health Care and Community Service Systems
by Suzanne Bronheim, Phd.D. Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development & Thomas Tonniges, MD, American Academy of Pediatrics. Summer 2004. 27 pages. http://gucchd.georgetown.edu/72800.html
Focus: Medical homes and organizing services for children and youth with special needs and their families so families can access them easily.
Excellent, practical resource with suggestions for how health care system representatives and representatives from the broader system of community services can:
- become more aware of each other,
- learn about the specifics of the other system
- and communicate successfully to improve services for children and youth.
Training Tools For EI Service Providers
Health Topics: Early Intervention
www.medicalhomeinfo.org/health/EI.html
The National Center of Medical Home Initiatives
offers a variety of web-based medical home training tools for medical and non-medical health providers.
www.medicalhomeinfo.org/about/index.html
www.medicalhomeinfo.org/training/materials.html
National Center of Medical Home Initiative for Children with Special Needs
- The Medical Home and Early Intervention Programs brochure
This brochure has three goals:
1) to educate pediatric clinicians about early intervention programs funded under Part C of IDEA;
2) to educate early intervention programs about the role of the medical home in providing comprehensive, coordinated, collaborative care in concert with the family and other medical and non-medical service providers;
3) to provide strategies for effective collaboration and communication between the pediatric clinician and early intervention programs in the provision of quality, comprehensive care.
To access the brochures go to the National Center's Early Intervention Page and look under "Brochures" near the top of the page
www.medicalhomeinfo.org/health/EI.html
BACK TO TOP
Posted 12/23/05
By: Sue Wendel, Occupational Therapist, Center on Human Development and Disability, University of Washington |
Suggestions for this site?