Washington State Medical Home logo Medical State Medical Home Partnerships Project - Families, health care providers and communities working together for children and youth with special care needs and disabilities
Families Physicians Other Providers Diagnoses and Conditions Resources and Support Health and Developmental Monitoring Leadership Network About
HOME | Printing Tips | Site Map | Contact Us | Accessibility  

The Medical Home Leadership Network

Teams by County

Community Activities

Autism Systems Work

Workgroups

Child Health Notes

E-Updates

Presentations

Brochures

Team Logistics

Conferences & Events

Funding Opportunities

Data Links

Suggestions for this site?


This page was last modified on : 01/22/2013

The Medical Home Leadership Network

News

What is the Medical Home Leadership Network?

Team Benefits

Team Expectations

History

MHLN Publications & Conference Calls

News


Fall 2012 MHLN E-Update

May 10, 2013 Medical Home Summit

  • Save the Date! There will be a summit for MHLN Teams, Great MINDS trainers and other key partners Friday, May 10, 2013 at the Embassy Suites Hotel in SeaTAc, WA. More information coming soon. Contact orville@uw.edu for additional information.

 

What is the Medical Home Leadership Network?


The Washington State Medical Home Leadership Network (MHLN) promotes and provides practical support for medical homes --family-centered, comprehensive coordinated primary health care-- for children and youth with special health care needs.

The MHLN is composed of:

  • Volunteer, interdisciplinary parent-professional teams based in counties across the state
  • Project staff
  • A broad range of organizational partners

Teams

County MHLN teams typically include:

  • Pediatrician or family physician experienced in the care of children with disabilities and chronic health conditions
  • Parent of a child with special needs
  • Public health nurse, usually the Children with Special Health Care Needs Coordinator for the county
  • Early Intervention Family Resources Coordinator

Some teams add additional representatives -- for example, from mental health, oral health, early childhood programs such as Head Start, schools or other groups -- depending on the needs and interests of their community.  

Team members are experienced at taking care of children with special health care needs and knowledgeable about practical aspects of implementing medical homes. There are currently 16 active teams with over 85 members, covering 17 of the state’s 39 counties and the majority of the state’s population.  In addition, five counties (Chelan, Douglas, Ferry, Stevens, Pend Oreille) have individual representatives in the Network, but do not currently participate as a team.

While teams do not provide care to individual children as part of their work with the MHLN, they do identify and carry out activities to address one or more unmet medical home needs in their county.  (See matrix of primary activities for MHLN Teams in 2011-12, 2010-11 or 2009-10.  

Examples of team activities include:

  • Presentations to primary care practices and others with practical tips for providing care through the model home model, including what community resources are available for children with special needs and how to access them
  • Identifying/developing resource lists of community services need by children and youth with special health care needs
  • Participating in the WA State Combating Autism Advisory Council's Community Asset Mapping project to improve early identification and diagnosis of children with autism and other developmental disabilities  
  • Distributing Child Health Notes to community primary care providers and other service providers to increase awareness of specific care management issues for children with special needs and community and state resources available to help
  • Collaborating with community partners to increase the use of standardized developmental screening tools that identify young children with developmental disabilities and delays
  • Piloting care coordination strategies within team clinics such as allowing longer appointments for children identified as having complex care needs, using clinic data to identify patients in need of specific services, and developing a single emergency care plan to be used by patients and all their health care providers.
  • Spearheading community-wide efforts to provide coordinated services for children and youth with special needs
  • Sharing expertise with state policymakers about state programs that impact care for children with special needs, their families, and health care providers
  • Piloting a Family Advisory Group within a pediatric practice
  • Informal consultation with colleagues
  • Developing grants to support and build on team-related activities

Information on team plan templates - for detailed information about individual team activities please contact Kate Orville at orville@uw.edu or the county team coordinator.

Project Staff

MHLN project staff and colleagues at the University of Washington, Center on Human Development and Disability are available to provide technical assistance to MHLN teams. 

Partners

It is a national and Washington State public health goal for every child and youth with special health care needs to have access to a medical home.  A broad range of partners support the work of the Medical Home Leadership Network. The Washington State Department of Health, Children with Special Health Care Needs Program has provided core funding since the MHLN began in 1994.  Additional funding and support has come from the US Maternal and Child Health Bureau, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the WA Early Support for Infants and Toddlers Program (ESIT) as well countless hours of volunteer time from community team members, member of the broad advisory team and many other supporters. The MHLN is a key partner in Washington State's Medical Home Strategic Plan

The Medical Home concept has been endorsed as the standard of care by a growing number of health care provider organizations and other groups:

  • The American Academy of Pediatrics
  • The American Academy of Family Physicians
  • National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners
  • American College of Physicians (Internal Medicine)
  • American Osteopathic Association
  • The US Maternal and Child Health Bureau
  • Family Voices

(Link to policy statements from above groups)

Back to Top

Many additional medical home initiatives are happening in Washington State as well.

Benefits for MHLN Team Members


  • Regular communication with other innovative colleagues and communities in Washington and nationally through the annual conference, Network email listserv, and state and national Medical Home web sites
  • Updates on successful strategies and new materials to support medical homes through state MHLN listserv (typically 4-8 messages a month)
  • Increased access to decision-makers in state and national agencies, health care plans, family organizations and other organizations impacting services for children with special health care needs and their families
  • Seed money for team-related activities ( $350 available for each MHLN team for July 1, 2011-June 30, 2012)
  • Medical Home brochures for families and other materials
  • Technical assistance from project staff as requested, or help identifying appropriate technical assistance from MHLN state and national partners for local medical home activities
  • Enhanced access to grant opportunities as a Medical Home team and community—both invitations to participate in grants written by the WA State Department of Health and others and help from staff at the American Academy of Pediatrics and MHLN staff to identify new sources of grants for activities developed locally
  • Influence state and national policies as Washington State develops its statewide systems to support medical homes for all children and youth, including those with special health care needs and their families
  • Invitation to statewide MHLN conference in spring 2013
  • Personal and professional growth
  • The satisfaction of making a difference in the lives of children with special health care needs and their families

Team Member Expectations


 

  • Commitment to promoting the medical home approach to care for children with special health care needs and their families
  • Willingness to be identified as a medical home resource person for community colleagues
  • Respond to local inquiries as time permits or refer to MHLN project staff or others as appropriate
  • Quarterly local MHLN team meetings (in person or by phone)
  • Team lead will share brief written or oral updates with project staff when requested (2-4 times/yr)
  • Development of a simple workplan for local MHLN activities for the coming year (can revise plan over course of year)-- plan to build on needs of the community, while recognizing the personal and professional interests and time availability of team members
  • Willingness to share materials and strategies developed with project staff to be shared with others.

 

History


 

The Medical Home Leadership Network began in 1994 as a collaborative effort between the Center on Human Development and Disability, Seattle Children's Hospital, the Washington Chapter of the Academy of Pediatrics, and the Washington State Department of Health, Children with Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN) Program. 

Initial funding came from the Department of Health CSHCN Program and the US Maternal and Child Health Bureau for a demonstration project to provide training and support to physicians and public health nurses who served children with special health care needs.  Additional funding was later provided by the Washington State Early Support for Infants and Toddlers to add Family Resources Coordinators and parents to the teams.  Initially called the Medical Home Training and Resource Project, the name was changed to the Medical Home Leadership Network (MHLN) in 2000. 

The MHLN has continued through ongoing support and funding from the Department of Health's Children with Special Health Care Needs Program.

US MCHB Grant 2001-2005

Back to Top

MHLN Publications & Conference Calls


 

See also Brochures and Child Health Notes

 

MHLN Newsletters

 

 

June/July 2012 Issue- Community Asset Mapping

Summer 2011 Issue- Strengthening Systems of Care for CYSHCN

 

Medical Home Conference Calls

 

Pat Justis, Manager of the WA Patient-Centered Medical Home Collaborative spoke on lessons learned from this just completed initiative as well as other related state medical home initiatives.Pat gave her presentation twice to allow a choice in when to participate:

  • Tuesday, October 25th 9:30-10:30 a.m. call with an optional additional 30 minutes for further discussion for those who want more time
  • Wednesday, Nov 9th 12-1 p.m. call (with optional discussion til 1:30)

 

 

Conference Call Handouts:

Great MINDS (Medical Homes Include Developmental Screening) Grant

 

The WA Dept of Health, CSHCN Program recently received a 3 year federal HRSA grant to improve systems of care for children and youth with special health care needs and their families.  The grant will do this by improving medical homes through pairing parents and physicians to give continuing education to providers, continuing an innovative Community Asset Mapping process (piloted in our state's recent federal autism grants), and working to improve developmental screening in WA. 

DOH has contracted with the Medical Home Leadership Network, the WA Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (WCAAP), and state family organizations (Parent to Parent, the Family to Family Health Information Center at PAVE, the Fathers' Network, and the Center for Children with Special Needs) to closely collaborate with DOH on this exciting new initiative.  The WCAAP has the primary responsibility for developing and implementing the training piece which will focus on medical homes, family-centered care and developmental screening. WCAAP trustees from across the state have agreed to deliver the training- we will link local MHLN teams with these efforts, in addition to consulting on the training modules and strategies.

Great MINDS Grant Abstract

 

Washington State Physician Medical Home Report

Promoting Medical Homes for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs and their Families: September 2005.  Results from interviews with 11 MHLN team physicians. 

A Needs Assessment of Washington State Medical Home Physicians (Full Report, 729Kb)

Executive Summary Only (228Kb)

 

Medical Home Project (Final Report, June 1993)

www.medicalhome.org/4Download/medhome_1993.pdf  (8MB, searchable PDF)

Back to Top

MHLN Home

© 2013 Medical Home Partnerships Project, Box 357920, Seattle, WA 98195-7920   Ph: 206.685.1279 Email: info@medicalhome.org
Disclaimer