Medical Home

Clearwater Pediatric Care has adopted several policies to create a "Medical home" environment for our patients and their families. The concept of a medical home was initiated by the American Academy of Pediatrics in the 1960s. As newer technologies have become available many medical organizations that assess the quality of medical care have begun to further define what constitutes a medical home and have implemented certification processes. We are in the process of being recognized by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) as a Patient Centered Medical Home. As you visit the office you will see several initiatives that we have undertaken that help us achieve the requirements of the medical home. You can visit the NCQA-PCMH website at http://www.ncqa.org/Consumers.aspx for more information on Patient Centered Medical Home.

Of course, to be a successful Medical Home we need your help. Please think of us as the first place to come for advice and care for all your child's heath care needs. This includes not only their physical health but also for all their emotional health and for all developmental issues as well. Whenever you need to find the appropriate specialist or need to access community resources for your child we are there to help and guide you. We are there to help coordinate your child's care. Please let us know any time your child has been treated by a specialist, has been evaluated at an emergency room or After-Hours clinic or by any other healthcare professionals like chiropractors, acupuncturists etc. This helps us obtain complete information about your child’s healthcare. Informing us of medications prescribed elsewhere, test results, and procedures is extremely important to having a complete understanding of your child's health. Every time your child is seen for care outside of our office, please request that a copy of the visit or test result is sent/faxed to us so we can best serve you. Our fax number is 727-449-0594.

Also, please be sure to share if your child is using any over the counter medications or you have utilized any home remedies or alternative forms of therapy. Periodically review your child's medical record and health information that is available to you thru the patient portal section of our website and let us know if any of the information we have on file is either incomplete or inaccurate. Good care requires a partnership between your family and our office and we appreciate your help and look forward to working with you.

You can always call the office for urgent messages and questions. But if you have questions that are not of an urgent nature or need to share information about your child you can always log on to your portal account to send us a secure message using your credentials. Please note that you can call our office any time of the day or night to speak with the on-call doctor or triage desk that can get you in touch with the on-call doctor if needed. Even when the office is closed, reach out to the on-call physician first, as often as we may be able to provide care within your medical home, or can direct you to the place that is best suited for the issue that your child is facing.

Clearwater Pediatric Care will conduct surveys periodically and ask that you answer thoughtfully as we use your feedback to guide us toward quality improvement that is important to you. We will also run reports to see how we are doing on recommended services like lead screening, immunizations, cholesterol screening and counseling for smoking cessation and obesity prevention with the goal of continuously improving our performance. We may choose subset of patients with complex medical conditions, patients that may have mental and behavioral health issues and patients with social determinants of health to be included for extra attention to improve the quality of care provided. A copy of our Medical Home brochure is available on our website. We would be glad to provide additional copies if you desire.

For our most recent report on quality improvement please click here.

 

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