Pennsylvania's Department of Public Welfare has been awarded this grant to work with seven health systems and their pediatric provider practices to focus on improving the quality of care through the adoption of health information technology by electronically extracting and reporting from their electronic health records (EHRs) the CMS core pediatric quality set which identifies twenty-four pediatric specific quality measures. The objective is to leverage HIT to maximize the early identification of children with developmental delay, behavioral health issues and those with complex medical conditions so their care can be closely coordinated with the PCP medical home, appropriate medical specialists and child serving social agencies. A pre-clinic visit screening tool to enhance provider and patient communication and an electronic referral/care plan tracking system that links children with special needs to appropriate services will be implemented at all seven health systems. In addition to the screening tool, two projects focusing on children with hypertension and transitioning children from hospital to home will also be created.
