This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
AAP: Urgent care centers should not replace the medical home
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Urgent care facilities should be used as a complement to the medical home but not in place of one, according to the AAP’s recently updated policy statement on recommendations for freestanding urgent care facilities.
The statement, drafted by the Committee on Pediatric Emergency Medicine, states that research on the nature, scope, quality, and outcomes on the treatment of children at freestanding urgent care facilities remains limited.
“Educational opportunities at the student, resident, fellow, or continuing medical education level involving pediatric urgent care are minimal and should be developed as more and more pediatricians and other health care providers are employed by, provide oversight to, or work collaboratively with urgent care facilities,” the committee members wrote. “Accreditation of urgent care facilities should include meaningful assessment of quality measures and performance of appropriate pediatric care.”
Gregory Conners
The statement recommends that facilities:
- Provide timely evaluation and stabilization of children;
- Complement and support medical home models;
- Be staffed by providers with proper training to work with children; and
- And initiate transfer among children with emergencies.
“To make this model successful, we need a basic research and education in what is working and what is not when it comes to the treatment of children in urgent care centers in the United States,” Gregory Conners, MD, MPH, who is chief of the division of emergency and urgent care at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., said in a press release. “We need to clearly define when urgent care is appropriate for children and make sure it is well integrated with the child’s primary care.”
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts