Coordinating Health Care for Kids Takes Another Leap
HARTFORD, Conn. – Hartford is home to a successful health care coordination model for children with complex medical needs.
And now it has been expanded to reach vulnerable children at risk due to poverty.
Dr. Paul Dworkin, executive vice president for Community Child Health at Connecticut Children's Medical Center, says an evaluation of multiple outreach efforts showed the need is obvious.
"It still took, on average, seven contacts to successfully link the child and family to the appropriate program or service," he says.
A $97,000 grant from the Connecticut Health Foundation will help expand the community systems approach to children and families in the greater Hartford area, and set the stage for expansion statewide.
Dworkin says the outreach model cuts across systems.
"Not only within the child's health sector," he says, "but also within the early care and education sector and within the family support sector."
Dworkin adds the care coordination collaborative model promises lower costs and better outcomes for children.
