2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH
3/06/2012 | 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Engaging the Medical Home in Connecting Babies with Hearing Loss to Early Intervention, Family Support and Specialty Services | Regency Ballroom A | 5
Engaging the Medical Home in Connecting Babies with Hearing Loss to Early Intervention, Family Support and Specialty Services
The pediatric medical home plays a critical role in the system of care for infants with hearing loss. Yet, research consistently shows that pediatric primary care providers are not prepared to address the needs of infants with this low-incidence condition. In 2010 Connecticut’s EHDI program embarked on an initiative to improve connection of infants to services after audiological assessment following referral from newborn hearing screening showed significant hearing loss. Based on work done in Minnesota, the CT EHDI program retained the services of two pediatricians with expertise in hearing loss to work with pediatric primary care providers to facilitate linkage to early intervention, medical specialty and family support services. EHDI pediatricians make personal phone calls to the medical homes of infants who do not pass hospital newborn hearing screening and also receive hearing loss diagnoses on follow up testing. This physician to physician support program provides education, consultation, and guidance to primary care providers caring for infants with hearing loss. It is also providing a rich descriptive data base on primary care providers’ challenges in serving as the medical home for children with hearing loss. Phone calls for infants with hearing loss who were born in 2010 and not enrolled in Early Intervention show that medical homes 1) know that the infant for whom the call is initiated has a diagnosed hearing loss and 2) can easily retrieve information relevant to the diagnosed loss (newborn hospital screening results, audiology report, etc.). However, the most significant lapse in connection of families to services appears to result from the medical home believing that another provider in the system (otolaryngologist, audiologist) would handle the referrals. In addition medical home providers are not aware of family support opportunities in the state. This session will discuss the implications of these findings for EHDI system building.
- 1. work with key state stakeholders to engage child health providers in connecting babies with hearing loss to follow up services 2. help inform child health providers about the array of follow up services needed by/available to families of babies with hearing loss 3. connect families of babies with hearing loss to family support services through their medical home
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Presenters/Authors
Lisa Honigfeld
(), Child Health and Development Institute, honigfeld@uchc.edu;
Lisa Honigfeld directs CHDI’s efforts to strengthen pediatric primary and preventive care. Her responsibilities include work designed to test innovations in child health services delivery, policy and systems. Lisa has more than 25 years of experience working in child health organizations, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, Saint Francis Hospital in Hartford and ProHealth Physician. She serves on several statewide committees related to medical home, care for children with special health care needs, family support, pediatric training and quality improvement. Her work focuses on: care coordination, developmental screening, the interface between primary care and community and services, and expanding the capacity of pediatric primary care to address mental health issues. Lisa has a BA in sociology from the University of Massachusetts and an MA and PhD, both in sociology, from the University of Chicago. She holds a faculty appointment in Pediatrics at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.
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Amy Mirizzi
(Co-Presenter), Connecticut Department of Public Health, amy.mirizzi@ct.gov;
Amy Mirizzi has served as the Connecticut EHDI Coordinator since 2008. She was hired by the Connecticut Department of Public Health in 2005 to oversee EHDI tracking and surveillance. She is a member and past chair of the CT EHDI Task Force, a member of the CT Department of Rehabilitation Services, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services Advisory Board, and a member of the Directors of Speech and Hearing Programs in State Health and Welfare Agencies. Ms. Mirizzi is responsible for overall program functions, policy development, technical support to hospitals and diagnostic testing centers, consultation on database design and development, provider and family education and outreach, and ongoing program evaluation.
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Brenda Kinsella Balch
(Co-Presenter), AAP CT Chapter Champion, bkbalch@sbcglobal.net;
Brenda Kinsella Balch, M.D. has been a pediatrician for over 25 years and has been the American Academy of Pediatrics Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Connecticut Chapter Champion since 2006. In addition she serves as the EHDI Regional Network Liaison for New England
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Ann Gionet
(Co-Presenter,Author), CT Department of Public Health, ann.gionet@ct.gov;
Ann Gionet
Health Program Associate, Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs Program, Connecticut Department of Public Health. Staff member of the CYSHCN program for fifteen-years, knowledgeable about all aspects of program, participate in program design and execution through four major program enhancements. Responsible for integrating family/consumer involvement into the CYSHCN and Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) programs and policies including involvement of consumers in program planning and execution, engage families through mentoring and culturally appropriate supports, educate staff to engage consumer participation, support families in the professional setting, provide family/professional partnership presentations/workshops. Awarded federal funding for CT family/consumers to attend the Association of Maternal Child Health Program (AMCHP) National Meeting in Washington DC and attend as a Family Mentor.
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