September 2021 Resources of the Month |
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Dear UCCCN members,
Here are your September 2021 resources and meeting summary.
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Announcements
Pediatric Project ECHO series continues to offer insightful topics for this academic year. We are collaborating with USU's Project SCOPE for 10 sessions on NOWS/Opioid Exposure. Each session discusses a case for suspected NOWS exposure. They are very interested in having presenters, so please consider submitting a case if you have one to discuss. You can contact Mindy or reply to this email. Please see the schedule and register for any sessions you are able to attend.
Car Seat Clinic at Shriners Hospitals for Children–Salt Lake City – Dora Requena. The Car Seat Clinic assesses the child's car seat needs and they will leave the clinic with the seat they need. The Clinic checks with insurance companies first for coverage, but if coverage is not available Shriners will donate the car seat to the family. The child doesn't have to be a patient at Shriners and can come directly to the Car Seat Clinic. They have found that 90% of car seats are not installed properly.
3rd Annual Teen to Adult Healthcare Transition Summit – October 13, 2021. The event is free, but please register in advance to attend. This project between the University of Utah, Intermountain Healthcare, and Utah Department of Health Integrated Services provides resources and the approach to help children and youth with special health care needs transition to adult care. This is a hybrid conference with in-person or virtual attendance options.
The first year of the conference was an introduction to the topic, the second year focused on ways to offer care and transition, and this year will be more hands-on, lived experiences with ways to connect families with transition-age services. Each year's summit will build on the previous one and is an ongoing event held around mid-October.
SPARK for Autism study reminder – Genetic study to see if there are links to autism. Please contact Amalia Caamano at sparkforautism@hsc.utah.edu or 801-213-4049 for materials and more information.
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Medical Home Portal Updates |
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Updated Diagnosis Modules
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Medical Home Portal Spotlight - Athena
COVID-19 Information in Medical Home Portal. The banner at the top each page on the site will link to national and state-specific data. We are in the process of updating this section and have new links. The services directory highlights new categories specific to Education/School, with subcategories of interest for special education/schools, student disability schools, and school districts.
Brainstorming
Resource #1: Eric Christensen – Integrated Services Program Technology Lending Library has Chromebooks and Hotspots available for loan to families of children with special health care needs for Telehealth, social services intake, educational conferences, or other visits. Technology is located in Blanding, Price, Richfield, Vernal, Salt Lake (Utah Parent Center), Ogden (Integrated Services). Feel free to call or direct families to 801-273-2988 for more information.
Case #1: Tina Persels – The Utah Parent Center is getting lots of calls about respite. Please let Tina know if you have any new resources or ideas on this topic. Please help families reach out to their local Legislative representatives on this issue.
Quality Improvement #1: Heidi Bates – the upcoming UPIQ Asthma Collaborative still has room for a few clinics to join. MOC Part 4 is available. Please contact Heidi at heidi.bates@hsc.utah.edu or 801-541-9714 for questions, or you can register online.
Disclaimer: These resources come from our members as part of the meeting brainstorming session; please check with your providers to make sure they are appropriate for your patient/families.
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Presentation: COVID-19, Schools, and Health Plans - Judi Yaworksy, RN, NCSN, Salt Lake City School District Lead Nurse
Judi talked about what's different at school this year, including that classrooms are open for in-person learning and the distance learning opportunities that are available.
Families should be paying attention to the significant increase in children infected with COVID-10. Limited safety protocols and the variants are factors in this, and she encourages the following to help decrease the spread: vaccination when appropriate, masks, social distancing whenever possible, especially when not wearing masks; and frequent hand hygiene.
Case counts associated with schools can be viewed on the state's dashboard. We learned about quarantine protocols and to check with district guidelines and county COVID-19 dashboards (example: SLCo Health Department dashboard). Other tips include
- being aware of all learning options available in your district, especially if students are hesitant to learn in-person,
- know your student's school nurse. If a student is affected by COVID but doesn't have a healthcare plan, the school nurse can provide advice and options.
- encourage parents to work with their child's teachers and school nurses
- every school district has a health department representative
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the Utah Parent Center has Parent Consultants that work specifically with parents of children and youth with disabilities in seven school districts across the state
- if a child is exposed to COVID in their home and there is no option for the family member to remove themselves, the student may miss up to 21 days of school because of having to quarantine for 10 days after the individual with COVID's isolation period ends. However, if the student tests positive for COVID during that time, the overall isolation time can be reduced.
Judi discussed the state guidelines for testing and when students will need to be placed in isolation, along with testing options and reporting. More information on statistics and guidelines can be found on the Utah State Coronavirus site. Unfortunately, at this time, there doesn't seem to be a single online site with all Utah school districts' COVID procedures, and the visibility and approach to communicating COVID information and guidance will vary from district to district. When certain thresholds are reached, "Test to Stay" protocols will be implemented (some schools are doing this now). PCR tests are more reliable if there are no symptoms; antigen tests are more reliable if there are symptoms.
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Our next meeting date: October 20, 2021.
All the best,
Mindy
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Mindy Tueller, MS, MCHES
Manager, Medical Home Portal
Facilitator, Utah Children’s Care Coordination Network
Department of Pediatrics
University of Utah
801-213-3920
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