Enhancing Developmentally Oriented Primary Care: An Illinois Initiative to Increase Developmental Screening in Medical Homes

Abstract

In 2005, the Enhancing Developmentally Oriented Primary Care (EDOPC) project of the Illinois chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services began a project to improve the delivery and financing of preventive health and developmental services for children in Illinois. The leaders of this initiative sought to increase primary care providers' use of validated tools for developmental, social/emotional, maternal depression, and domestic violence screening and to increase early awareness of autism symptoms during pediatric well-child visits in children aged 0 to 3 years. These screenings facilitate identification of children at risk and those who need referral for further evaluation. Primary barriers to such screenings include lack of practitioner confidence in using validated screening tools. In this article we describe the accomplishments of the EDOPC project, which created training programs to address these barriers. This training is delivered by EDOPC staff and peer educators (physicians and nurse practitioners) in medical practices. The EDOPC project enhanced confidence and intent to screen among a large group of Illinois primary health care providers. Among a sample of primary care sites at which chart reviews were conducted, the EDOPC project increased developmental screening rates to the target of 85% of patients at most sites and increased social/emotional screening rates to the same target rate in nearly half of the participating practices.