Medical Home Basics

Checklist and Tools

Learning Collaborative

Medical Home Measures

Identifying Patients with Special Needs

Developmental Surveillance & Screening

Care Coordination

Partnering With Families

Family to Family Support

Accessing Community Resources

Culturally Effective Care

Sharing Sensitive News

Transition

Oral Health

Office Organization and Management

Finances and Data Management

Quality Improvement

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Physicians

Introduction

The purpose of the Medical Home Physician Pages is to provide resources and tools that help physicians, other primary health care providers and their office staff serve as effective medical home providers for children and youth, especially those with special health care needs.

What is a Medical Home?

Who are Children with Special Health Care Needs?

Other Pages of Interest

What is a Medical Home?

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) believes that all children, particularly children with special health care needs, should have a medical home. A medical home is not just a place, it is a “family-centered way” of providing comprehensive primary health care services in a coordinated manner. Primary health care providers, medical specialists, and community service providers partner with families to optimize the child’s health and development, and assist with accessing services as close to home as possible.

Families whose children receive comprehensive, coordinated care through a known and trusted primary care provider report greater satisfaction with the care, fewer emergency room visits, fewer parental days of lost work and other benefits.

Who are Children with Special Health Care Needs?

Children who have, or are at risk for, chronic physical, developmental, behavioral or emotional conditions and who also require health and related services of a type or amount beyond that required by children generally. 

This definition was developed by the US Maternal and Child Health Bureau in collaboration with parents, physicians and others.  It helps identify children based on their need rather than their diagnosis.  Approximately 14 percent of children have an identified need.  Including the at-risk group this number jumps to approximately 30%. Examples of children with special needs include those with asthma, learning disabilities, cancer, food allergies, and autism. 

Other Pages of Interest

Diagnoses and Conditions

Diagnosis-specific care guidelines and patient education materials.  Focus on asthma, autism, ADHD, cerebral palsy, Down Syndrome, and low birth weight/prematurity.

Health and Developmental Monitoring

Information, resources, and practice tools to help you and your families optimize well-child care, preventive care and developmental monitoring.  Includes pages on Vision,

Hearing, and Growth.

Resources and Support

Find out about the several key statewide resources who can help families access services or visit the Services by County page to print county-specific lists of community services and supports.

Leadership Network

Information for and about county resource teams promoting medical homes at the community level. In the Teams by County learn who is active in your region. Under Presentations, link to powerpoint presentations by state and national experts on medical homes and on screening and development.

Families

Information for your families who children with special needs about partnering with their providers, accessing services including family support, and more.