| The ideal time for enhanced screening 
Because Well Child Visits are already setup to check children at appropriate developmental ages, it is the ideal time to add
enhanced screening to augment the consistency and completeness of the visit.
Enhanced screening allows for consistent detection and monitoring of developmental, social/emotional problems and chronic conditions, as well as screening Mom for post-natal depression or monitoring/educating parents about home safety issues. While only a few of the key areas & assessment tools are
presented as examples here, extensive sets of measures are available. Using trigger logic in the Electronic Interview customizes the depth of information
obtained by the practice or external agencies.
Pre-school children
Key screenings for pre-school children are around development
and social/emotional issues. While there are many to choose
from, the Ages
& Stages Questionnaires® (ASQ) is an excellent developmental
screening tool. With 19 different age groups covering the
age range of 4 months to 5 years old, there is an age appropriate
ASQ to match your practice's Well Child Visit schedule. For
social/emotional screening, the Ages
& Stages Questionnaires® : Social-Emotional (ASQ:SE)
with 8 different age groups covering the age range from 6
months to 5 years old is also an excellent tool. When
positive cases are detected and confirmed, the practice's
typical procedures for more in-depth assessment (M-CHAT, Vanderbilt,
etc) or follow-up treatment should be used, or you might consider
implementing some of the innovative Integrated
Models.
School age children
For school age children, the Pediatric
Symptoms Checklist (PSC) is a commonly used general screening
tool. It has excellent sensitivity and works well as
a flag for more in-depth assessment. Adolescents benefit
greatly from more behavioral/psychological based screenings
such as the Patient
Health Questionnaire - Adolescent (PHQ-A).
The same as pre-school children, when positive
cases are detected and confirmed, the practice's typical procedures
for more in-depth assessment or follow-up treatment should
be used or implement an innovative Integrated
Model.
Other areas to consider
Seminal questions for Chronic Conditions
(asthma, diabetes, etc) or home safety issues may be included
as part of the general questionnaire to flag for further investigation.
When the child has known chronic conditions, setting up questions/measures
to automatically trigger, enables monitoring of treatment adherence and quality-of-life.
Further, to the degree that your practice has the staff to
pursue it, questions/measures directed to family members
around smoking cessation, postnatal depression, partner violence
or extensive psychological assessment, etc., all contribute
to quality-of-care.
Please Contact Us to learn
more or discuss how Well Child Visit assessment will work
in your setting.
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