The Medical Home Leadership Network
News
What is the Medical Home Leadership Network?
Team Benefits
Team Expectations
History
MHLN Newsletters and Reports
News
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 
MHLN Newsletter
Summer 2011 Issue- Strengthening Systems of Care for CYSHCN
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 18 active teams with over 85 members, covering 18 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 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
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)
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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 ( $300 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 2012
- 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
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MHLN Newsletters and Reports
See also Brochures and Child Health Notes
Washington State Medical Home Newsletter
2011 MHLN Newsletter (all in Adobe Acrobat ) Help with PDF
Strengthening Systems of Care for CYSHCN (Summer 2011)
2010 MHLN Newsletters
The Medical Home Neighborhood Winter 2010-11
Community Asset Mapping for Early Identification and Diagnosis of Autism
Developmental Screening for Washington's Children
2009 MHLN Newsletters
Medical Home Activities Update 2008-09
Medical Home and Autism
Family Outreach Through the MHLN
Increasing Family Involvement
2008 MHLN Newsletters
June/July 2008 Issue
June 2008 overview of county Medical Home Leadership Network team workplans and activities (Adobe Acrobat PDF, 6 pages)
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)
= Adobe Acrobat file format. Help with PDF
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