Gap in Healthcare for Foster Children
Gap in Healthcare for Foster Children
Gap in Healthcare for Foster Children
The gap in healthcare for foster children is best summed up by its lack of consistency. Numerous studies have concluded that these children are at higher risk of having undiagnosed chronic illness, asthma, diabetes, and long-term poor health outcomes. The American Academy of Pediatrics offers many scholarly journal entries on the topic that will be highlighted below.
There is a movement in advocation for better identifying these children and implementing an 10% increase in primary care follow ups. Reid et al. (2020) describes how a 30-week period of identification and collaboration of doctors, NPs, social workers, and foster parents led to an increase in follow up care for children and an increase in quality of care reported by providers. This study highlights a qualitative measure put in place that led to an improvement of care. Additionally, Smith (2021) examines the health disparity in the state of Texas of early access to health care for foster children. The Texas Department of Family Protective Services worked with providers to implement a full needs assessment within three days of a child entering foster care to better align with national best practice standards. This study highlights another qualitative measure put in place to shed light on this issue that other states would benefit from adopting.
I find the largest gap in healthcare for this demographic is the lack of data sharing. Greiner et al (2019) addressed this issue by implementing IDENTITY, a data sharing interface between health care providers and family service professionals to help alleviate the discrepancy in information sharing for foster children. This three-year implementation process with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital streamlined communication, improved access to relevant health information that informed treatment (surgical history, allergies, immunization status, etc) and provided a place for all relevant contacts. The promising results of this study show the obvious disparity and provides qualitative and quantitative measures supporting the positive outcomes of its implementation.
References:
Greiner, M. V., Beal, S. J., Dexheimer, J. W., Divekar, P., Patel, V., & Hall, E. S. (2019). Improving information sharing for youth in Foster Care. Pediatrics, 144(2). https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2019-0580
Reid, V., Anderson, C., Elwell, J., & Meadows-Oliver, M. (2020). Improving primary care follow-up rates for youth in foster care. Pediatrics, 146(1_MeetingAbstract), 509–510. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.146.1ma6.509
Smith, V. B. (2021). A statewide approach to increasing early access to medical care for children entering Foster Care. Council on Foster Care, Adoption and Kinship Care Program. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.147.3_meetingabstract.84
