Elizabeth Durmowicz, MD

Washington, DC

Resource accessibility and family support/empowerment

Purpose: To assist and empower CYSHCN and their families by developing a model of support and training that will improve accessibility to resources, foster communication and promote/provide individualized support.

Activities: 1) Perform a needs assessment of CYSHCN via surveys to determine concerns related to accessing services and resource information; 2) determine resources required to meet needs identified, specifically evaluating a systematic approach to coordination of application processes, a parent professional advocate/resource program, and strategies to implement and maintain care notebooks; and 3) write and submit grant proposals to create the "Families Unlimited program".

Outcome: N/A

Valerie Kerschen, MD

Wichita, KS

Oral Health for CSHCN

Purpose: Access barriers to providing oral health & prevention services to CSHCN.

Activities: Using focus groups, surveys, and interviews, this project will: 1) Identify & build a coalition of professionals to address oral health services & prevention; 2) perform a needs assessment to produce a report of oral health needs of both professionals and families of CSHCN; 3) determine roles & training needs for professionals; 4) identify oral health learning needs of families; 5) identify community, state and national resources to support the system and design an evaluation system to fully implement the project.

Outcome: N/A

Beverly Nazarain, MD

Worchester, MA

Building Connections: Families, Physicians and Schools

Purpose: To better incorporate schools into medical homes of CSHCN in an urban community: Worchester, MA.

Activities: Using surveys and focus groups, this project will: 1) identify barriers and facilitators to communication between families, physicians and schools; and 2) identify communication improvement strategies to enhance care of CSHCN in schools and involving schools in their medical homes.

Outcome: N/A

Roytesa Savage, MD

Greenville, NC

Eastern North Carolina - Building Medical Homes

Purpose: To evaluate the "medical homeness" of current medical services for CSHCN in eastern North Carolina.

Activities: 1) Four community forums will be conducted in resource centers throughout the county to enhance community input in increasing access to medical homes for CSHCN; 2) plan and identify members to develop a medical home team and 3) information from medical home tools (the medical home index and medical home family index) and forums will be evaluated and prioritized for future implementation strategies to be replicated in practices throughout the 29 county region.

Outcome: Four community forums were conducted, two forums targeted parents of CSHCN, one evaluated the community’s perception of medical home and one focused on the input from the Latino/Hispanic population. The Medical Home Family Index was utilized during the two forums targeting parents and eighteen physicians completed the Medical Home Index. Throughout this project, members were identified for a medical home core team at BSOM Pediatric Outpatient Center. This team will be using the results from the indexes and surveys to improve the “medical homeness” of the BSOM Pediatric Outpatient Center as well as other offices in Pitt and surrounding counties.

Philadelphia, PA

Building Centers for Philadelphia's CSHCN

Purpose: To identify opinions of families with CSHCN and the pieces necessary to create family-centered care sites for CSHCN under the auspices of larger practices.

Activities: Through interviews and focus groups, this project will: 1) attempt to understand the opinions and experiences of families and providers; and 2) explore the perspectives of families and caregivers of CSHCN in this community. This approach will foster the family-centered care approach in building and structuring a center for CSHCN that meets the needs of all involved.

Outcome: N/A

Paige Ward, MD

Augusta, GA

A CSHCN Medical Home: Accessing East/Southern Georgia

Purpose: Identify needs of the families and community to create a more stable infrastructure of a medical home for CSHCN at the Medical College of Georgia.

Activities: Using focus groups and meetings to conduct a needs assessment of the community, the project will identify: 1) limitations to access to care and barriers/frustrations from community pediatricians; and 2) problems with care coordination from both providers and families of CSHCN. After analyzing their findings, this project will seek additional funding to implement a special child clinic at the Medical College of Georgia that will function as a stable medical home and become a model for other community practices.

Outcome: N/A