June 2012

Thank you to everyone who visited the Medical Home Portal, UPIQ and Utah Department of Health’s tables at the 34th Annual Common Problems in Pediatrics Conference. We hope the information and materials provided by and for our programs will help you improve the care for the children that you serve. These include:

From the Utah Department of Health: More information about these and other programs can be found at Utah Department of Health & Human Services.

Through UPIQ: Information on these opportunities can be found by contacting the Utah Pediatric Partnership to Improve Healthcare Quality (UPIQ) through the Medical Home Portal website.

On the Medical Home Portal:

The many organizations that participated in the conference exhibits offer valuable services and resources for providers that serve children across the western states. We were happy to be a part of it.

The Bureau of Children with Special Health Care Needs Director Holly Williams will be retiring in July 2012. Richard Harward, AuD, will serve as the new Bureau Director (Welcome!) and Harper Randall, MD will continue to serve as the Medical Director.

The CSHCN Bureau provides support for the establishment and maintenance of Medical Homes. The CSHCN Bureau can provide a brief, 30-45 minute training on concepts and examples from local practices for those practices that are not familiar with the Medical Home philosophy. To request training, contact Al Romeo, RN, PhD at alromeo@utah.gov or 801-584-8535.

Medical Homes often face challenges in finding local community services and engaging family members to participate as part of the Medical Home team. CSHCN, in partnership with Utah Family Voices, provides assistance in finding resources, increasing family involvement, and developing expertise in care coordination. Please contact Gina Pola-Money at 801-584-8236 or gpolamoney@utah.gov for more information.

For practices that are familiar with the Medical Home concept and are ready for further quality improvement projects, we recommend that they participate in projects offered by the Utah Pediatric Partnership to Improve Healthcare Quality (UPIQ); some of which are funded by the Utah Department of Health. UPIQ is currently recruiting for two projects:

• Improving Immunization Delivery in Primary Care and
• Best Practices for Follow-up of Positive Newborn Screening Results.

In July, UPIQ will begin recruiting for a Mental Health in Children – Identification, Evaluation and Management project. In addition, UPIQ has begun offering educational webinars. The current series is focusing on mental health topics. For more information about UPIQ, to register for a project or a webinar or view an archived webinar, visit Utah Pediatric Partnership to Improve Healthcare Quality (UPIQ) or call 801-585-9945.

Practices and families can continue to find new information, tools, and community resources on the Medical Home Portal.

The Medical Home Portal is on Facebook: Medical Home Portal Facebook page. We use Facebook to connect with families and children with special health care needs, and with other organizations with similar missions. "Friends" can post directly on our page. Do you have CSHCN information you'd like to share? Contact Mindy via our Feedback page or, "like" us and post it on our Facebook wall.