Community Health

Reconsidering Screening in Primary Care
Reconsidering Screening in Primary Care 1024 683 Jeb Phillips
2021 Bright Futures/AAP Recommendations for Preventive Pediatric Health Care (Periodicity Schedule) in color showing all of the screenings recommended across 34 patient visits through a patient's twenty-second birthday

Screenings are an important part of preventive care, but the growing list of recommendations is daunting. How do we prioritize the limited time we have with patients and families? There are 32 well-child primary care visits recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics in its Bright Futures “Periodicity Schedule.” The first is prenatal, the last…

A Hidden Epidemic: Parental Incarceration and What To Do When It Affects Your Patients
A Hidden Epidemic: Parental Incarceration and What To Do When It Affects Your Patients 1024 512 Andrew Axelson and Samantha Boch, PhD

If having an incarcerated parent was classified as a chronic health condition, it would be the second most prevalent chronic condition in the United States for children under the age of 18 – just behind asthma. In fact, the percentage of American youth with an incarcerated parent is about 10 times higher than the percentage…

Housing for Health: An Early Look at What Can Happen When a Pediatric Health System Begins to Treat a Neighborhood as a Patient
Housing for Health: An Early Look at What Can Happen When a Pediatric Health System Begins to Treat a Neighborhood as a Patient 150 150 Abbie Miller

In a recent publication in the journal Pediatrics, researchers from Nationwide Children’s Hospital present a case study for treating a neighborhood as a patient. Neighborhood effect syndrome, characterized by symptoms of extreme poverty including blight, housing insecurity, racial segregation, trauma, violence, poorly performing schools, low social cohesion and support and environmental toxins, has debilitating consequences…

Four Reasons Hospitals Fail to Prioritize Drug Abuse in Communities Plagued by Opioids
Four Reasons Hospitals Fail to Prioritize Drug Abuse in Communities Plagued by Opioids 150 150 Kevin Mayhood

Lack of money and expertise, risk and stigma appear to forestall community benefit programming. Communities in Appalachian Ohio are among the hardest hit in America’s opioid crisis, but a study of hospitals in the region shows that under half make substance abuse a priority in their community benefit programs. “These hospitals are comfortable addressing diabetes,…

Creating the Patient-Centered Medical Neighborhood
Creating the Patient-Centered Medical Neighborhood 1024 575 Tiasha Letostak, PhD

How do we create a more integrated healthcare delivery system to improve outcomes in our community? The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) conceptualizes the medical neighborhood as a patient-centered medical home (PCMH) and the network of other clinicians providing health care services to patients within it, along with community and social service organizations, as well…