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Preventive care access may be lacking for children at community health centers
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DENVER — Children who attended community health centers for their medical needs had more difficulty receiving preventive care and spending more time with the doctors than did children who received medical care at non-community health centers, according to research presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies’ Annual Meeting 2011.
According to Leesha Hoilette, MD, of the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, having a medical home has been shown to improve the quality of care for patients, and the Patient-Centered Medical Home is a vehicle to reform health care. However, community health centers face many barriers in moving toward a Patient-Centered Medical Home.
“Community health centers are key providers of medical care for low-income populations,” said Hoilette. “They provide one-quarter of all primary care for the nation’s low-income populations. However, the research and policy has focused mainly on adult care, despite the fact that one-third of the patients are aged younger than 20 years.”
Hoilette and colleagues performed a secondary analysis of pooled years of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). Children aged 0 to 17 years, who were at 200% below the poverty level, and who had at least one visit to a community health center or another primary care setting were selected for this study. There were 1.2 million children who fit these criteria. The researchers assessed access, specialty-care and patient-centeredness.
Results indicated that the care that children received in the community health centers was comparable to the care that children received in non-community health centers, with the exception of access to preventive care and provider-patient relationships. There were no significant differences within and across age groups.
Disclosure: Dr. Hoilette reports no disclosures.
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