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Inside
this Issue:
- Minnesota Medical Home Report
- Miriam Buck: A Miracle in the Making
- Integrated Community Systems of Care for CYSHCN - A
Major New Initiative
- Making the Case for Medical Home: A Review of the Evidence
Minnesota Medical Home Report
This article appeared in the Fall/2004 issue of Minnesota
Pediatrician
Knowing only
that they were participating in “an exciting
endeavor to continue to develop their practices as a medical home,” 11
teams - each comprised of a physician, two parents and a care coordinator/
nurse - came together in mid-March to start a year long collaborative
learning process to realize medical home improvements.
The teams were
put together by 11 physicians - all pediatricians - who were
among the 50 physicians who responded to a letter sent out from
The Minnesota Chapter of the AAP, PACER Center and the Minnesota
Department of Health, inviting them to participate in a project
to ensure that children with special health care needs (CSHCN)
receive coordinated, ongoing, comprehensive care within a medical
home. In agreeing to participate, the 11 teams committed to three
retreats and three action periods — basically a year of
very hard work.
When the teams
gathered in Minneapolis for their second two-day learning session
in July, they shared the impressive progress they’d
made in only four months. Dr. Alan Kohrt, one of the featured faculty
for the July Learning Session, wrote after the session that “the
practices are spectacular and have done such a great job.” Dr.
Kohrt, a Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at The Children’s
Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania School
of Medicine, served as a consultant and faculty member on the National
Medical Home Learning Collaborative, was a co-author of the original
AAP statement on the Medical Home, and is the Pennsylvania program
coordinator working with 20 practices developing Medical Homes.
The
challenge to the 11 practices at the end of the March learning session
had been to focus on care partnerships and identifying children with
special health care needs. During the following action period, all
the teams had identified almost 900 children with special health
care needs. Care coordination, special appointment times, and developing
care and emergency plans cannot happen for children who are not identified;
that is, “flagged” somehow in a practice’s system.
The other focus
of the teams was on “care partnerships.” Each
team was set up as a partnership of providers and families. Between
the March and July learning sessions, some teams met weekly while
others met monthly. It was clear from the discussions and evaluations
at the July Learning Session that there were indeed real partnerships
emerging. The Owatonna team’s presentation at the July Learning
Session stated that the “main benefit” of the process
so far “has been identifying this need and bonding with the
families of children with special health care needs.” A comment
from one of the parents to a question about the most significant
impact since the March Learning Session in patient outcomes summed
up the feeling as the teams gathered for a second time: “Networking — Most
of all CHANGES and support for us families.”
The teams made progress in many other areas as well. Some examples
include:
- CentraCare
Women and Children’s Clinic in St. Cloud has
done the most to “hard-wire” changes into the entire
clinic’s system. Specifically, they began the process
of identification of CSHCN with manual lists first, determining
which children to enter into the central system, and within a
fairly short time, entering all the children flagged as CSHCN
into the central system. Ongoing identification and flagging
is done as children come in for visits. They were also able to
develop, test and implement a care plan for the most involved
CSHCN. Further, the team has implemented a separate Asthma Care
Plan process. Soon after the learning session, CentraCare was
able to get three hours per week of care coordination. The care
coordinator’s initial work is to streamline the process
of getting care plans in place, and to involve other providers
in the care planning process.
- The Park
Nicollet Clinic in Plymouth is working on developing a parent
advisory group and is identifying ways to integrate a care
plan into the new electronic medical records system of the
clinic. Soon after the July learning session, a very successful
first parent advisory group met, where 15 parents of CSHCN
made valuable input into what a care plan should include, how
the clinic’s
triage system could be made more effective, and how they would
use care coordination for their children. The group will be
very effective advocates in the future for the changes envisioned
by the team.
- Grand Itasca
Clinic in Grand Rapids was able to recruit 30 children to attend
a day long “asthma camp” - a significantly
more successful camp than ever before. Also, the promise of getting
a care coordinator position within the clinic is an exciting
prospect.
- The North Point Health and Wellness Center team (formerly the
Pilot City Clinic team) is working with Southeast Asian CSHCN
and their families. A focus group met and parents identified
issues including: parents not knowing what resources were available;
long waiting times; clinic phone line difficult to use; lacking
communication/ educational tools both at school and at home.
- The Regina
Medical Center has adopted an Emergency Care form and is completing
them for their CSHCN. A parent on the team developed a special
tube that attaches to a child’s wheel
chair with Velcro to hold the Emergency Care plan. Following
the learning session, the physicians were able to begin developing
care plans for the most involved CSHCN.
- The Brainerd
team devised a system to route calls for identified CSHCN directly
to a staff person working with the team’s
medical providers. The practice team also modified its health
history dictation system so that it could serve as a care plan
as well. Following transcription, a system was devised so that
one copy of the “health history” went into a notebook,
one into the chart, one to the parent, and one to the emergency
room.
- The Owatonna Clinic has identified each CSHCN with a special
stamp in their chart and by a pop up note in the computer. A
dedicated time slot of 30 minutes is held open each day for a
CSHCN. The practice had completed four emergency care plans and
copied the parents through e-mail and hard copy, and copied the
emergency room at the Owatonna Hospital and Ambulance Service.
The practice is testing a Fax-Back for specialty visits and has
had some positive results. The clinic receptionists are being
trained to ask specific questions of CSHCN families. The practice
was successful in having a direct phone line set up to the care
coordinator and to the information desk so CSHCN parents can
have easy access.
- The New Ulm practice team has identified 110 CSHCN as of the
July meeting and they are flagged in the clinic system, the hospital
system and the emergency room. The New Ulm team pediatrician
has created a database for emergency care plans and for asthma
action plans. The Emergency Care plans are on a CD-ROM in the
E.R. When asthma medications are updated on the database, the
emergency care plan is automatically updated. The New Ulm team
also has developed a newsletter, became proactive in providing
care coordination, conducted a parent focus group, created a
Fax-Back Form for subspecialists so they can Fax their findings
and recommendations immediately after a visit, and started a
website to host CSHCN resources.
- The Lakeview Team in Watertown has been meeting with people
from the schools and community. By including people from the
community on the team, new channels of communication between
the practice and community have been opened. The Lakeview team
has also implemented one-hour time slots for some CSHCN and a
direct clinic telephone line for families of CSHCN.
- The Alexandria
Clinic team was able to test and implement care plans for their
CSHCN. They were surprised by how much families loved them.
Parents as partners were involved with the Alexandria clinic
in a unique way — providing input on how to re-design
the entryway to the building so that it will be easier to get
a child out of a car and into the building.
- The Mankato clinic team devised a resource board at the clinic
with information for families, collaborated with some of the
psych services within the clinic, tested an autism screening
tool, and tested a medical summary sheet which is going through
administrative channels for approval prior to implementation.
While some
teams have found the process difficult, some have found it surprisingly
smooth. Dr. Marilyn Peitso from the CentraCare Women’s and Children’s practice team noted that the
process had been made smoother because there was support from the
top on down, that families were eager to participate, and “the
more we do, the more people get excited.”
Go to the Table of Contents
Miriam
Buck: A miracle in the making
Printed with permission from Owatonna Clinic - Mayo Health
System Hometown Health newsletter Fall/2004
By the first
time 3-year-old Miriam Buck pointed at her father and told him, “No!,” he
was overjoyed.
“A lot of parents might be irritated, but we celebrated,” says
Dan Buck. “We were told Miriam would never walk or talk, so
we are thrilled whenever she does things normal for children her
age.”
Miriam was born with tuberous sclerosis (TS), a genetic disorder
that causes benign tumors to form in the heart, brain, kidneys,
eyes, skin and lungs. It is estimated that one in every 6,000 children
is born with TS. In some, the disease may cause no symptoms and
go undiagnosed for years. In others, such as Miriam, the condition
is immediately life threatening.
“Miriam is a miracle,” says Mary Rahrick, M.D., a pediatrician
at Owatonna Clinic - part of Mayo Health System. “It has been
amazing to see this child, who was not expected to survive infancy,
now thriving.”
A normal pregnancy
Dan and Jennifer Buck already had three children - adopted son Reese, then
9; son Caleb, then 4; and daughter Elisabeth, then 3 - when Jennifer Buck
learned she was pregnant with Miriam. The pregnancy, like her first two,
seemed normal in every regard.
It wasn’t
until Buck went into labor that she - or her family physician
at Owatonna Clinic, Richard Griffin, M.D. - knew there was any
problem with the baby she was carrying.
“Miriam’s heartbeat varied between 60 and 260 beats
per minute during labor,” says Buck.
A normal fetal heartbeat is between 110 and 160 beats per minute.
“As soon as she was born, Dr. Griffin took Miriam away for
testing,” says Buck.
Dr. Griffin
returned to tell the couple that their daughter’s
heart, which should have been about the size of a small orange, was
as big as a large grapefruit. Dr. Griffin recommended the Bucks immediately
send Miriam to a hospital in the Twin Cities for further testing
and specialty care.
An ambulance rushed Miriam to the Twin Cities, and her parents followed
in their car. By the time the couple reached the hospital, physicians
had begun examining Miriam and were fairly certain she had TS. She
had 16 tumors in her heart and six dozen tumors in her brain. The
physicians had never seen such an aggressive form of TS and told
the Bucks it was unlikely Miriam would survive.
But the physicians had never met anyone like Miriam.
A fighter
The tumors in Miriam’s heart were inoperable and caused significant stress
on her heart. She frequently went into cardiac arrest, and her heart would
restart when she curled into a fetal position and kicked her tiny legs. Physicians
worked around the clock to find a combination of medications to stabilize Miriam’s
heart.
After two weeks, they were successful.
“We’d never dealt with any doctor except our family
physician,” says Jennifer Buck. “We were overwhelmed
by all of the specialists caring for Miriam.”
When she was nearly 1 month old, Miriam was stable enough to go
home.
The Bucks had
to learn to care for a child who has a serious illness. They met
with a public health nurse who taught them how to give Miriam her
medications - as many as 21 each day. Once the family was back in
Owatonna, Dr. Rahrick began coordinating Miriam’s care (see
the article "Medical Home Project – coordinating the care
of children who have special needs").
“Dr. Mary is our angel,” says Jennifer Buck. “She stays
on top of Miriam’s immunization schedule, communicates with all
the specialists and is available whenever Miriam needs her.”
Miriam’s short life has been a series of highs and lows. At 6 months
old, Miriam began having seizures — sometimes as many as 150 a day and
once for 48 hours straight — from the tumors in her brain. The
seizures are now controlled by medication and a special diet.
Miriam has begun to develop tumors on her eyes and kidneys.
While most children who have such severe TS have serious developmental delays,
Miriam is only a year behind other children her age. She turned 5 in April,
and last summer became a big sister to Ezra.
“When Ezra was born, Miriam just blossomed,” says Jennifer Buck. “She’s
no longer the baby in the family. It’s been the biggest step in
her life.”
The night Miriam
was born, her father began researching TS and learned most children
born with the disease don’t
live past their teens or early 20s. That knowledge has intensified
his relationship with his daughter.
“I realized early on that we might not have Miriam for very long,” says
Dan Buck. “Her illness has given me a chance to share with her what many
parents don’t get to share with their kids. When you have a child who
has special needs, I think you buckle down. You don’t take things
for granted.”
Go to the Table of Contents
Medical Home Project – coordinating
the care of children who have special needs
Caring for a child who has special health needs can be overwhelming - countless
medical appointments, unexpected trips to the emergency room, long lists of
medications to track and seemingly endless paperwork.
Parents often navigate these unfamiliar waters on their own. A new pilot program
sponsored by the Minnesota Department of Health offers help to families in
this situation.
“Through the Medical Home Project, we’re trying to ease the burden
on parents and provide support as they work their way through the medical system,” says
Mary Rahrick, M.D., a pediatrician who coordinates the program at Owatonna
Clinic. Helping Dr. Rahrick coordinate the program at Owatonna Clinic are a
nurse and parents of children who have special needs, including Dan and Jennifer
Buck. Medical Home Project provides these services:
- A physician who coordinates
the child’s care
- A tip sheet with the
coordinating physician’s work hours and contact
information
- A form to take to all medical appointments to be completed by providers
and immediately faxed to the coordinating physician for review
- Special attention when scheduling appointments to determine if extra time
or assistance upon arrival at the clinic is needed
- Assistance developing a care plan for the child, including a health history
and emergency contact information
“Parent support of this program, a work in progress, is overwhelmingly
positive,” says Dr. Rahrick. “We hope to expand it to include more
physicians next year.”
For information about the Medical Home Project, contact Dr. Rahrick at Owatonna
Clinic, 507-451-1120.
Go to the Table of Contents
Integrated Community Systems of Care for CYSHCN
-
A Major New Initiative
The Minnesota Department
of Health’s (MDH) Minnesota Children
with Special Health Needs (MCSHN) program has applied for a grant through “The
President’s New Freedom Initiative: State Implementation Grants
for Integrated Community Systems of Services for CSHCN.”
The purpose of the New Freedom initiative is to support statewide implementation
of Community-Based Systems of Services for Children and Youth with Special
Health Care Needs (CYSHCN). Under the initiative, the Federal Maternal
and Child Health Bureau has the lead in developing and implementing a
plan to achieve appropriate Community-Based Service Systems, as defined
by the following components: (1) family/ professional partnership; (2)
comprehensive health care through a medical home; (3) access to adequate
health insurance/financing; (4) early and continuous screening; (5) organization
of community services for easy use by families; and (6) transition to
adult health care, work, and independence.
If funded, the project
would begin in May of 2005. It will be a partnership between MCSHN,
the Minnesota Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, PACER
Center and its Family Voices of Minnesota, Healthy and Ready to Work,
and Children’s
Mental Health Services at the Department of Human Services.The partners
hope to enlist other partner organizations as the project unfolds.
The partners will work closely with other programs within MDH and the
Department of Education through workgroups targeted to the six outcomes.
The Wilder Research Center will evaluate the project.
The goal of the proposed project is to integrate the six core components
into a comprehensive, coordinated and community driven system of care that
has informed, activated CYSHCN and their families at the center of the
care system.
Objectives are:
- The development and mobilization of policy and practice partners
among physicians, state level government program leaders, youth and
families of CYSHCN who will all effectively promote changes and advance
adoption of best practices in systems of care for CYSHCN;
- The expansion of Medical Home in Minnesota both in breadth and depth,
including adoption of best practices for transitioning youth to all
aspects of adult life, including adult health care, work and independence.
- The assurance that medical care practices providing coordinated,
comprehensive, family centered care to CYSHCN are reimbursed appropriately
for care coordination, care plans, preventive services and coordination
with community services;
- The elimination of disparities in access and outcomes between CYSHCN
and their same age peers without health care needs and elimination
of disparities among CYSHCN because of linguistic, cultural or financial
barriers.
The proposed project would:
- Build on and expand on the momentum of existing efforts, including
the Medical Home Learning Collaborative.
- Build
the “infrastructure” for families, youth, and physicians
to participate more actively in the design of systems and in the decisions
affecting care to CYSHCN through (1) a Parent Council facilitated by
Family Voices of Minnesota, (2) a Pediatric Council, (3) a Youth Advisory
Board, (4) by enhancing the capacity of the Minnesota Chapter of the
American Academy of Pediatrics (MN-AAP), and (5) by utilizing the “Breakthrough
Series” process and the “Model for Improvement” to
ensure aims of the many individuals and groups working cooperatively
are realized through small changes made continuously throughout
the project.
Go to the Table of Contents
Healthy People
2010 — Six Critical Indicators
The
six components that define a system of services for CYSHCN
are the same as the “six critical indicators” for
progress towards Health People 2010. The following is a
list of those six outcomes or indicators and the national
centers that have been funded to provide help to projects
throughout the Nation in achieving these goals.
- All CSHCN will receive regular ongoing comprehensive
care within a medical home.
The National Center of Medical Home Initiatives for CSHCN: http://www.medicalhomeinfo.org
- All families of CSHCN will have adequate public and/or
private insurance to pay for the services that they need.
The National Center on Financing for CSHCN: http://cshcnfinance.ichp.edu/
The Maternal and Child Health Policy Research Center: http://mchpolicy.org
- All children will be screened early and continuously
for special health care needs.
National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management: http://www.infanthearing.org;
The National Newborn Screening and Genetics Resource
Center: http://genes-r-us.uthscsa.edu/
- Families of CSHCN will participate in decision making
at all levels and will be satisfied with the services
that they receive.
Family Voices: http://www.familyvoices.org;
National Center for Cultural Competence: http://www.georgetown.edu/research/gucdc/nccc/
- Community-based service systems will be organized so
that families can use them easily.
Champions for Progress Center: http://championsforprogress.org
- All youths with special health care needs will receive
the services necessary to make transitions to all aspects
of adult life.
Healthy and Ready to Work National Center: http://www.hrtw.org
|
“Concentrate
on meeting the needs of children and families rather than the
needs of organizations.”
-
one of the “Rules of Improvement” from
the Model for Improvement
Go to the Table of Contents
Making the Case for Medical Home: A Review of
the Evidence
The following information was provided by Lauri Levin, MSW,
Technical Assistance Manager, National Center of Medical Home Initiatives
for CSHCN, Division of Children with Special Needs American Academy
of Pediatrics.
Overview
In 2002, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released a statement
calling for a medical home for all children with special health
care needs (CSHCN). This statement came in recognition that the
American health care system has been spinning out of control in
terms of both organization and cost. Although the term “medical
home” may be considered new by some, it is a term that has
evolved over the past 20 years. It embodies all that we know that
health care can and should be for families and child health care
professionals: accessible, continuous, comprehensive, family centered,
coordinated, compassionate, and culturally effective. The medical
home is a vision for how all individuals who are involved in the
delivery of health care services can partner with their patients
and their patients’ families to help them achieve their maximum
potential. It includes a seamless system of health care services
that fosters collaboration and cooperation among all members of
the community in which the child and the family live.1
As defined by
the Federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), CSHCN have
or are at increased risk for chronic physical, developmental, behavioral,
or emotional conditions that require health and related services
of a type or an amount beyond that required by children generally.CSHCN
have almost 2.5 times as many contacts with physicians, and they
account for five times as many hospital days per 1,000 as children
generally. The comprehensive health needs of these children and
adolescents do not fit with the services traditionally offered
by the primary care system, which is designed for the 80% of children
who do not have special needs. Primary care practices are organized
to provide routine well-child care and acute illness management
based on the individual patient–provider encounter. Well-child
and preventive care for CSHCN must include a model of chronic condition
management. Chronic condition management requires the capacity to
identify and monitor CSHCN, coordinate and systematically plan for
their care, collaborate with specialists and community agencies,
and advocate for their needs, all in partnership with their families.2
National Data on Access to Medical Home
The 2001 National Survey of Children With Special Health Care Needs
represented an unprecedented opportunity to establish uniform prevalence
estimates for CSHCN and to gather essential information on how
this population of children and families fares in the current health
care environment. A major component of the survey addresses the
medical home.
Five criteria, selected to reflect the characteristics of a medical
home as defined by the AAP policy statement on the medical home,
were analyzed to describe the extent to which CSHCN receive care
characteristic of the medical home concept. These criteria included
having (1) a usual place for sick/well care, (2) a personal doctor
or nurse, (3) no difficulty in obtaining needed referrals, (4) needed
care coordination, and (5) family-centered care received. Items from
the Survey were selected and clustered to characterize each of the
five components.
Results of the
survey indicate that (1) approximately half of CSHCN receive care
that meets all five components established for medical home; (2)
most CSHCN have a usual source of care and a personal doctor or
nurse, but other components of the medical home, especially elements
of care coordination and family-centered care, are lacking; (3)
access to a medical home issignificantly affected by race/ethnicity,
poverty, and the limitations imposed on daily activity by the child’s
special health care need; and (4) parents of children who do have
a medical home report significantly less delayed or forgone care,
significantly fewer unmet health care needs, and significantly fewer
unmet needs for family support services.3
Data for Minnesota were reported in the last issue of Special Connections:
only 48.7% of CSHCN have a medical home, putting Minnesota at 44th
in the nation.
Barriers to the Medical Home
Nationally, as the medical home concept evolved and gained greater
recognition, barriers to implementing a medical home for all children
became apparent. Three major barriers in implementing the concept
were (1) training pediatricians to understand the medical home
concept; (2) communication and care coordination for related services
in health, family support, and education/special education; and
(3) reimbursement for periodic well-child supervision and care
coordination.4
The Cost and Quality Benefits of Providing
a Medical Home
International and National Data
International and within-nation studies indicate that a relationship
with a medical home is associated with better health, on both the
individual and population levels, with lower overall costs of care
and with reductions in disparities in health between socially disadvantaged
subpopulations and more socially advantaged populations. Although
important in facilitating use overall, insurance does not guarantee
a medical home.
The National Survey of CSHCN
The greater the extent to which a wide range of services are provided
by primary care practitioners and a family orientation of these
services are associated with better health outcomes at lower costs.
In three major metropolitan areas of the United States, a lower
rate of pediatric hospitalizations was found in communities in which
primary care physicians are more involved in the care of children
before and during hospitalization.
Having a regular source of care was found to be the most important
factor associated with receiving preventive care services, even after
considering the effect of demographic characteristics, financial
status, and need for ongoing care. Receiving optimal primary care
(in terms of availability, continuity, comprehensiveness, and communication)
from the regular source of care further increases this likelihood. 7
Medical Home Primary Care Networks Data
In the Pediatric Alliance for Coordinated Care (PACC), six
pediatric practices introduced interventions to operationalize the
medical home for CSHCN. The intervention consisted of a designated
pediatric nurse practitioner acting as case manager, a local parent
consultant for each practice, the development of an individualized
health plan for each patient, and continuing medical education for
health care professionals. The objectives of this study were (1) to
characterize CSHCN in the PACC, (2) to assess parental satisfaction
with the PACC intervention, (3) to assess the impact on hospitalizations
and emergency department episodes, and (4) to assess the impact on
parental workdays lost and children’s school days lost for CSHCN
before and during the PACC intervention.
Methods.
A total of 150 CSHCN in six pediatric practices in the Boston
area were studied. Participants were recruited by their pediatricians
on the basis of medical/developmental complexity. Physicians
completed enrollment information about each child’s diagnosis
and severity of condition. Families completed surveys at baseline
and follow-up (at two years), assessing their experience with health
care for their children.
Results. A total
of 60% of the children had more than five conditions, 41% were
dependent on medical technology, and 47 percent were rated by their
physician as having a “severe” condition. A total of 117 (78%) families provided
data after the intervention. The PACC made care delivery easier, including
having the same nurse to talk to (68%), getting letters of medical necessity
(67%), getting resources (60%), getting telephone calls returned (61%), getting
early medical care when the child is sick (61%), communicating with the child’s
doctor (61%), getting referrals to specialists (61%), getting prescriptions
filled (56%), getting appointments (61%), setting goals for the child (52%),
understanding the child’s medical condition (56%), and relationship with
the child’s doctor (58%). Families of children who were rated “severe” were
most likely to find these aspects of care “much easier” with the
help of the pediatric nurse practitioner. Satisfaction with primary care delivery
was high at baseline and remained high throughout the study. There was a statistically
significant decrease in parents missing >20 days of work (26% at baseline;
14.1% after PACC) and in hospitalizations (58% at baseline; 43.2% after
PACC). The approximate cost per child per year of the intervention was
$400.
Medical Home Primary Care Practices Data
In a recent study, the cost of unreimbursable care coordination services for
CSHCN was determined in one community-based, general pediatric practice.
On the basis of national salary and benefits data, the annual cost of the
time spent coordinating care for CSHCN in this medical home model ranged
from $22,809 to $33,048 (representing the 25th and 75th percentiles, respectively).
Conclusions. The costs of providing care coordination services to CSHCN in
a medical home are appreciable but not prohibitive. Standardization of care
coordination practices is essential because it makes the medical home more
amenable to quality improvement interventions. Mechanisms to finance unreimbursable
care coordination activities must be developed to achieve the Healthy People
2010 objective that all CSHCN have access to a medical home. 6
South Carolina’s
Case Study of their First Medical Home Mentor Site (June, 2004)
The Data: “Specifically, Medicaid data is used to examine
office visits, inpatient hospitalizations, emergency room visits,
pharmacy claims, and dental services. A comparison group matched
on demographic, diagnostic, and health service utilization
descriptors was created . . . . The most dramatic difference,
which was statistically significant, was the rate of emergency
room visits resulting in inpatient hospitalizations for the
case group from the pre-medical home quarters (1-4) to the
medical home year quarters (5 -8).” 9
Comprehensive Care in an Ambulatory Care Setting
A study published in 1999 documented that a comprehensive program of care for
CSHCN, including developmental disabilities, can improve outcomes by reducing
secondary complications and thereby reduce costs. This study suggests that
directing financial resources to ambulatory, comprehensive care teams seems
to have reduced admission for children with chronic conditions and reduced
the average length of stay. Hospital inpatient charges fell significantly,
resulting in a savings to insurers of $10.50 for every $1 invested.The intervention
was the implementation of a comprehensive care coordination program.
Results: Between 1984 and 1995, mean length of stay for children with chronic
conditions decreased from 83.9 to 10.6 days; mean annual admissions decreased
from 2796 to 1622. Median hospital inpatient charges, adjusted for cost of
living, decreased from $26.1 to $14.6 million. A $77.7 million savings occurred
for inpatient care, with total expenditures from the insurance program of $3.6
million (a 21:1 ratio). Almost half the professional activities provided for
these children were for services that could not be reimbursed in a fee-for-service
model. Median adjusted inpatient charges were lower in Rochester, NY ($8,746)
than in other academic medical centers ($12,773) or in a national survey of
hospitals ($12,462), and fewer children were readmitted within 30 days in Rochester
(12.7%) than in other academic medical centers (15.0%).
Conclusions: An investment of funds by a regional insurance company was associated
with reduced costs, admissions, and lengths of stay for children with chronic
conditions, and resulted in significant savings for the company. This model
may be applicable to other centers. 10
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6. Antonelli R, Antonelli D. Providing a Medical Home: The Cost of Care Coordination
Services in a Community-Based, General Pediatric Practice. Pediatrics. 2004;113(suppl):1522-1528
7. Starfield B, Shi L. The Medical Home, Access to Care, and Insurance: A
Review of Evidence. Pediatrics. 2004:113(suppl):1493-1498
8. Palfrey J, Sofis L, Davidson E, Liu J, Freeman L, Ganz M. The Pediatric
Alliance for Coordinated Care: Evaluation of a Medical Home. Pediatrics. 2004:113(suppl):1507-1516.
9. http://www.medicalhomeinfo.org/resources/state/Downloads/SC/CaseStudy.pdf
10. Liptak, G., Burns, C., Davidson, P., McAnarney, E. Effects of Providing
Comprehensive Ambulatory Services to Children With Chronic Conditions. Archives
of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. 1998;152:1003-8
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The Minnesota Medical Home Project (Minnesota Medical
Home Collaborative) is a partnership between The Minnesota Department
of Health, the Minnesota Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics
and PACER Center/Family Voices of Minnesota.
The Minnesota Medical Home Learning Collaborative would not be possible
without all the pioneering work of the Maternal and Child Health
Bureau, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Center for Medical
Home Improvement, and the National Initiative for Children's Healthcare
Quality. The Minnesota Project has based its work on the National
Medical Home Learning Collaborative, recently finishing one year
of work. |
This Project is made possible through a grant from MCHB - Contract Number
1 H02MC00101-3
The staff person for the Minnesota Medical Home Learning Collaborative is:
Ann Ricketts, M.S., M.P.H.
Medical Home Coordinator
MDH-MCSHN
P.O. Box 64882
St. Paul, MN 55164-0882
651-281-9970
ann.ricketts@health.state.mn.us
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