Use of Transition Resources by Primary Care Providers for Youth With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Australian National Standards of Care for Childhood-onset Heart Disease (CoHD Standards). 1st Edition

These first Australian National Standards of Care for Childhood-onset Heart Disease (CoHD Standards) have been developed to inform the healthcare requirements for CoHD services and enable all Australian patients, families and carers impacted by CoHD (paediatric CoHD and adult congenital heart disease [ACHD]) to live their best and healthiest lives. The CoHD Standards are designed to provide the clarity and certainty required for healthcare services to deliver excellent, comprehensive, inclusive, and equitable CoHD care across Australia for patients, families and carers, and offer an iterative roadmap to the future of these services. The CoHD Standards provide a framework for excellent CoHD care, encompassing key requirements and expectations for whole-of-life, holistic and connected healthcare service delivery. The CoHD Standards should be implemented in health services in conjunction with the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards developed by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. All healthcare services should comply with the CoHD Standards, as well as working to their organisation's or jurisdiction's agreed clinical governance framework, to guide the implementation of structures and processes that support safe care.

Matching Level of Clinical Support to Patient Risk When Caring for Children With Behavioral Challenges

Adaptive care plans (ACPs) are an innovative method to providing care for children and adolescents with developmental disabilities who have challenging behaviors during healthcare encounters. ACPs take a family-centered approach to ensure that children with developmental disabilities are able to receive safe and appropriate healthcare by increasing communication and collaboration between caregivers and healthcare team members. Differing healthcare professionals are strategically involved in order to appropriately match the level of support to the patient's behavioral risk through a review of two case examples from the pediatric physical medicine and rehabilitation department. Specifically, case examples describe varying levels of accommodations and support provided to children with challenging behaviors, whose behaviors may have otherwise prevented them from receiving appropriate health interventions.

Healthcare Services During the Transitions to Adulthood Among Individuals with ASD Aged 15-25 Years Old: Stakeholders' Perspectives

Although previous research has shown that the transition to adulthood may be challenging, there exists a lack of research regarding perspectives of stakeholders on the transition of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This study aimed to investigate stakeholders' experiences regarding healthcare services for youth with ASD during their transition. We involved 20 stakeholders, including 17 parents of youth with ASD as well as 3 services providers. The study yielded three major themes including: (a) accessibility and quality of care; (b) tensions and conflicts; and (c) navigation and integrated care. The findings can be used to direct change within the healthcare services towards better practices for youth with ASD and increasing the likelihood of positive health outcomes.

A Provider-Facing eHealth Tool for Transitioning Youth With Special Health Care Needs From Pediatric to Adult Care: Mixed Methods, User-Engaged Usability Study

BACKGROUND

There is a need for medical education on health care transitions for youth with special health care needs. The Texas Transition Toolkit (the tool) supports providers through a one-stop shop for researching literature on care transitions, a catalog of care transition tools, and guides for developing care transition programs.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to assess the functionality and usability of the tool with providers working with transition-aged children and youth with special health care needs (representative users).

METHODS

The tool was evaluated using a triangulated mixed methods case study approach consisting of a concurrent think-aloud phase, a satisfaction survey, and a survey of problem relevance and task performance to operationalize and capture functionality and usability. Our mixed methods deep dive into the functionality and usability of the tool focused on 10 representative users from one medical home in Texas and 5 website design experts.

RESULTS

Representative users found the tool to be highly relevant, as demonstrated by the satisfaction score for relevance (138/150, 92%). According to the users, the tool provided comprehensive information related to health care transitions for youth with special health care needs, with a satisfaction score of 87.3% (131/150) for comprehensive. Overall satisfaction with the tool was high at 81.92% (1065/1300) with a cutoff score of 73.33% (953.4/1300) indicating high satisfaction, but users reported relatively lower satisfaction with search (114/150, 76%) and navigation (ease of use: 114/150, 76%; hyperlinks: 163/200, 81.5%; structure: 159/200, 79.5%). They experienced search- and navigation-related problems (total problems detected: 21/31, 68%) and, based on quality checks, had a relatively low task completion rate for tasks involving finding information (60/80, 75%), which required searching and navigation. The problems identified around search and navigation functionality were relevant (relevance scores ranging from 14.5 to 22, with a cutoff score of 11.7 indicating relevance).

CONCLUSIONS

The tool may help bridge the gaps in training on health care transitions for youth with special health care needs in US medical education. The tool can be used to create structured protocols to help improve provider knowledge, collaboration across pediatric and adult care providers, and the continuity of care as youth with special health care needs transition from pediatric to adult care. The results provided a road map for optimizing the tool and highlighted the importance of evaluating eHealth technologies with representative users.