Pediatrics – Confronting Challenges to Child Health
September 22nd, 2017 | Clinical ConnectionsBy Laura J. Shipley, MD
Pediatrics is all about upstream prevention of illness and promotion of health. At AHP, we are focusing on children in our community and looking at innovative and collaborative approaches that address some of the most concerning risks to their health. We see AHP providing a strong platform for action that promotes:
• discussion of priority areas of need in pediatric and adolescent health, with
• interdisciplinary collaboration and
• design of effective strategies that improve patient care and hand-offs across all systems ,
• targeted intervention/care coordination for the most vulnerable patients with critical needs and
• a focus on difficult issues affecting health across the age spectrum, including mental and behavioral health, obesity, teen pregnancy, social determinants of health, and others
Our approach is one of collaboration across medical disciplines and within communities to identify and implement evidence-based approaches and pilot innovative projects with strong evaluations. Our plan is to expand and generalize effective clinical improvement projects with structured support to assure successful implementation across the community of practices serving children.
We have had a strong start in our first year—developing effective partnerships, identifying priority areas for child and adolescent health, enhancing our Pediatric Care Management model, and promoting two pilot projects: Got Transition (improving the transition from pediatric to adult health care), and CAPPC’s Rochester Area Initiative for Improving Primary Care Approaches to Pediatric Mental Health (in the form of education and training provided by CAPPC expert faculty).
This fall our priority areas also include: a pilot for Behavioral Health Integration Model for Pediatrics in primary care practices, a Lead Screening Intervention to enhance our testing of children in the high risk ages from 1 to 2 years, and collaboration with the Long Acting Reversible Contraceptive (LARC) Initiative to increase the numbers of providers and sites where teens can access these important services. Additionally, we will continue conducting initial assessment meetings with pediatric practices who have implemented the Arcadia Analytics dashboard to assist practices in their health promotion and care delivery efforts.
We will be setting the stage for practices to participate in these and future initiatives in part through our Pediatric Primary Care Advisory Committee that meets every other month throughout the year. If your practice does not currently have a representative on that committee, we are accepting new members this fall.
Please contact me here if you would like to become more involved in our pediatric initiatives, or with any questions or suggestions you may have.
