Pediatric medical home effective

LOS ANGELES, March 19 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers suggest families benefit greatly from a medical home program with a constant source of care, typically a pediatrician.

Researchers at Mattel Children's Hospital and the University of California, Los Angeles said the program also resulted in families depending less on the emergency room -- the country's most expensive form of care delivery.

The researchers strongly suggest future pediatricians receive medical home training.

The study, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, examined emergency room, urgent care and inpatient encounters for 30 medical home patients for one year prior and one year after enrollment in the program and found the program decreased emergency room visits by 55 percent.

"The parents told us that they felt empowered by the pediatric residents, supervising faculty and medical home staff to use scheduled outpatient primary care and specialty visits rather than using the emergency department to get care," study lead author Dr. Thomas Klitzner said in a statement.

Klitzner and colleagues set up a pilot medical home program within the outpatient pediatric resident teaching clinic using guidelines established by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The program included an intake appointment and follow-up appointments twice the length of standard appointments, access to a bilingual family liaison and a binder for all of the child's medical information.