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Medical Home for Kids Hogar Medico para los Ninos |
Project Director
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The goal of the UCLA Medical Home is to provide accessible, family-centered, continuous, comprehensive, coordinated, compassionate, and culturally-competent care to our children with special health care needs. The Medical Home concept is a national initiative, supported by the America Academy of Pediatrics, AAP, which is being introduced to pediatric providers throughout the country. This philosophy of care is now being incorporated into the Children’s Health Center at UCLA. The establishment of the Medical Home program at UCLA is a very important and exciting endeavor as more and more of our patients have special health care needs. Because these children have multiple diagnoses, sub-specialists, medications, etc., their care is often difficult to coordinate. The UCLA Medical Home is helping make this effort easier and better. As a result, our residents become comfortable and experienced with taking care of pediatric patients with complicated medical problems. Grant support from the Healthy Tomorrows Partnership for Children, funded by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, and an Operations Committee enabled the UCLA Medical Home to become a reality in August 2003. Since then, a coordinator has been hired, patient notebooks were designed, shadow charts were created, resident referrals are being made, and patients are continuously enrolled. The residents are directly involved with making the Medical Home work. They are becoming more familiar with medical home issues and are benefiting from its resources. At the same time, their patient continuity is better maintained allowing them to provide more comprehensive care. Now that the UCLA Medical Home seed has been planted, we can all help it to flourish. Its growth will allow every health care provider at the Children’s Health Center, in cooperation with the patients and their families, to better care for our children and all their special needs. For more information about the UCLA Medical Home Project, please contact the Project Director, Thomas Klitzner M.D., Ph.D. at 310-825-7148. For more information about Medical Homes please visit: http://www.medicalhomeinfo.org , a website of the American Academy of Pediatrics Please visit http://www.familyvoices.org a resource website for families with children with special health care needs
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