The Bureau of Family Health’s Medical Home Program is committed to equipping health care providers, systems, pediatric clinics, and the future health care workforce with the tools and training necessary to deliver high-quality, comprehensive pediatric primary care services. These services align with the American Academy of Pediatrics medical home model framework and are supported by the federal Title V Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Block Grant, allowing them to be offered at no cost. For more information on the medical home model, visit aap.org/en/practice-management/medical-home.
Medical Home Implementation Toolkits
The key elements of high-quality pediatric primary care include universal developmental screening, holistic care coordination, and adolescent well-care visits through youth health care transition support. The following online toolkits help providers improve and implement services in their practice:
Helps providers and clinics implement developmental screening for children from birth to age five and improve screening efficiency, clinical outcomes, and overall child and family well-being. The toolkit includes webpages, videos, and worksheets to guide providers on how to screen for general development, autism, social-emotional health, and parental depression, among other areas of developmental health.
Helps providers and clinics implement or expand care coordination services using a quality improvement framework to improve patient care and outcomes. Clinics can assess their capacity, develop a plan, and implement new services efficiently, using tools like checklists and worksheets for guidance.
Helps providers and clinics integrate best practices to assist adolescents and young adults as they transition from pediatric to adult health care, and build independent life skills. It provides a four-step, quality improvement framework to guide clinics in creating or improving their tailored adolescent well-care services.
Training and Support
Any health care provider serving pediatric or adolescent patients and their families may request individualized training and technical assistance to implement one or more pediatric primary care medical home services.
Implementation Training and Support Request Form
Providers can fill out the Implementation Training and Support Request Form to request individualized support from content experts through webinars, monthly office hours, planning meetings, or one-on-one coaching to meet the unique needs of each health care provider and their staff.
This support includes providing training on the following medical home competencies:
- Developmental screening and monitoring
- Care coordination
- Adolescent well-care and youth health transition
- Quality improvement in pediatric health care
- Customized special topic training for pediatric practices interested in the medical home framework
Additional Bureau of Family Health support includes:
- Support in clinic workflow to integrate screenings, care coordination, and patient- and family-centered practices into routine care
- Access to region-specific, clinic or family-facing state and community-based resources
- Connection to the Provider-to-Provider Consultation Line, a no-cost provider-to-provider telephone consultation and education program to help pediatric and perinatal health care providers address their patients' behavioral and mental health needs
Health Care Providers-in-Training Didactic Lectures
Didactic lectures are offered to medical residents, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other Louisiana health care providers in training to empower future health care providers. The lectures align with competencies established by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and the American Academy of Pediatrics. They are fully customizable, offered in various formats, and include:
- Guest lectures and noon conferences: Participating universities and residency programs can select their level of involvement, choosing one to three lectures, with or without the activity. Lecture offerings include:
- Overview of the Pediatric Medical Home Health Care Delivery Model: Describes the characteristics of a patient- and family-centered medical home, highlighting the importance of family partnerships.
- Louisiana Medical Home Foundational Elements: Provides an extensive review of developmental promotion and screening, care coordination, and youth health transition supported by national and statewide policies, recommendations, and resources.
- Medical Home and Quality Improvement: Describes the Model for Improvement key components with an in-depth explanation of Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles.
- Case presentation activities: Requires providers-in-training to select a patient from their clinic or the provided vignette and prepare a presentation applying medical home principles. Presentations are delivered to our content experts, where we will provide valuable feedback to the provider-in-training.
- Curriculum support: Documents and resources are available to guide providers-in-training through the key medical home components with identified regional and state-specific referral resources. A customized medical home packet is available upon request.
Pediatric Primary Care Provider Resources
- Developmental Screening Regional Resource Guides: The developmental screening regional resource guides help providers refer families to relevant services and share screening-related resources. They focus on general and social-emotional development, autism, and family wellness. Each regional guide has local contact and referral information for agencies and services, as well as family-oriented resources such as milestone tracking apps.
- Family Resource Center: The Bureau of Family Health staff identifies and connects families to resources and services in their community and across the state based on their child’s specific needs. In addition to health information, they can connect families to resources related to insurance, finances, education, food security, and more.
- Care Coordination Regional Resource Guides: The care coordination regional resource guides help providers refer families to relevant services and share resources for children with special health care needs. Each regional guide has local contact and referral information for agencies and services.
- Youth Health Transition Regional Resource Guides: The youth health transition regional resource guides help providers refer families to relevant services and share resources for adolescents and youth transitioning from pediatric to adult health care. Each regional guide has local contact and referral information for agencies and services.
- Provider-to-Provider Consultation Line: The Louisiana Provider-to-Provider Consultation Line (PPCL) is a no-cost, provider-to-provider telephone consultation and education program that helps pediatric and perinatal health care providers address their patients’ behavioral and mental health needs. Research shows that mental health consultation is an effective approach to addressing mental health issues within clinical settings.
- Learn the Signs. Act Early: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Learn the Signs. Act Early. Program helps families and providers celebrate developmental progress, know what to expect next, and learn what to do if they have questions or concerns.