Program to Focus on Improving Quality of Health Care to Wayne County Children
Wayne Children’s Healthcare Access Program Launches
DETROIT, MICH Wayne Childrens Healthcare Access Program (WCHAP) is a private-public collaborative that was recently awarded a two-year demonstration grant from The Kresge Foundation to improve the quality of care to Wayne County children while simultaneously lowering associated health care costs.
WCHAP is part of a national movement to increase the quality of healthcare by increasing the medical homeness of primary care practices. The medical home is an approach that transforms primary care practices to be more accessible, continuous, comprehensive, family-centered, coordinated, compassionate, and culturally effective.
The Childrens Healthcare Access Program, CHAP is a proven medical home model that will impact 25,000 Medicaid Children in Detroit-Wayne County. Working in Collaboration with the Pilot Primary Care Practices, Health Plans, State and Local Health and Mental Health, Education, Families and Community Based Organizations, WCHAP will serve 2,500 to 3,000 children with direct services designed to:
1. Increase quality, well child visits, and care coordination;
2. Decrease costs by lowering unnecessary emergency services and hospitalizations;
3. Support primary care practices and school health clinics to improve medical homeness;
4. Specialty collaboration: asthma, obesity, integrated behavioral health and physical health, and maternal-child-teen health.
We are excited about working with our pilot primary care practices as they strive to improve childrens healthcare, says, says Jametta Lilly, WCHAP project director. WCHAP will provide support and technical assistance including developing practice based and project wide quality indicators such as, increasing clinic hours to improve access to implementing asthma initiatives and exploring best practices to reduce childhood obesity.
Modeled after the KentCHAP program in Grand Rapids, Wayne CHAP is the second pilot to go ‘live’ in Michigan. The Wayne CHAP pilot was originally supported through the Early Childhood Investment Corporation and the Great Start Collaborative-Wayne.
The launch of Wayne CHAP is a vital step in the continued improvement of the well being of Wayne County children, says Toni Hartke, director of the Great Start Collaborative in Wayne County. Good health and the access of quality care are core building blocks for school readiness. Success in school is influenced by a myriad of factors. Certainly, access to affordable and responsive medical assistance when needed is one of them.
Two states in the U.S., where the CHAP model originated, have experienced significant Medicare cost savings. Currently, four counties in Michigan support the medical home model at varying levels. If successful, WCHAP and KentCHAP could be models for the state.
“Children can’t learn if they aren’t healthy,” said Judy Y. Samelson, CEO of the Early Childhood Investment Corporation, which provided a planning grant to Wayne CHAP. Medical homes are one of the simplest yet most profound ways in which we can improve the health of children in Michigan and help them arrive at kindergarten ready, willing and able to learn.
WCHAP makes the child physical-mental health-education connection. WCHAP has strategic partnerships with the Detroit Public Schools and Wayne RESA, MI Dept of Community Health, The Detroit-Wayne County Community Mental Health Agency and the Wayne County Dept of Human Services as well as the Detroit Department of Health and Wellness Promotion.
We are particularly committed to strengthening care coordination between primary care providers and mental health, education, human services, faith based and early care and learning providers, adds Lilly. By working together to improve the quality of care and reducing ER and unnecessary hospitalizations we will see a return on investment. Through meaningful partnerships with families, providers and community organizations, we can positively impact the health and wellness of our children
Working with these strategic partners and preferred referral agencies, WCHAP will help connect the pilot primary care practices to their services and vice versa. WCHAP direct services include behavioral health triage and coordination, asthma case management, and family support services such as transportation and translation. WCHAP will also serve as a connector and provide regular collaborative meetings to increase quality and care coordination using data dashboards to help drive change.
The Detroi8t Wayne County Health Authority is a partner and the WCHAP fiduciary. Were extremely pleased to be a strategic partner with WCHAP. This relationship helps us achieve our goals of providing access to a medical home for all, says Chris Allen, executive director and CEO of the Detroit Wayne County Health Authority. The WCHAP organization is passionate about their mission, and the Health Authority will lend as much support as we can to maximize their success.
The effort to deliver a high-quality, patient-centered medical home will be met with some challenges. But, the models two-fold approach of direct service and collaboration will attempt to fill gaps by working with primary care practices, health plans, state and local health and mental health agencies, educators, families, and community-based organizations.
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The Wayne Childrens Healthcare Access Program (WCHAP) believes every child deserves a medical home. To learn more about WCHAP, visit www.dwchap.org
Great Start Collaborative-Wayne builds collaboration through parents, service providers and professionals to assure a coordinated system of services and resources to assist all Wayne County families with children from pre-birth through age eight. Visit www.greatstartcollaborativewayne.org.
The Early Childhood Investment Corporation is a public/private initiative working to restructure Michigans investment in children from birth to five through state and local community efforts. For more information on ECIC and its efforts, visit http://greatstartforkids.org.