Intervention to Increase Parent-provider Communication During Referrals

Study Summary

The overall goal of this three-year study is to adapt and test a brief, feasible intervention using a communication tool and brief parent coaching to increase the capability of parents of children and youth with special health care needs to exchange and use medical information in partnership with their child's physicians when their children require sub-specialty referral. We hypothesize that the use of tools to coordinate referrals between physicians and parents will facilitate increased communication between primary care physicians(PCPs) and specialists, and that parents trained in information exchange and care planning will experience increased self-efficacy in interacting with their child's physicians. There are two primary aims of the study. The first aim is to adapt a joint parent-provider referral communication and care planning intervention (i.e., the 'referral care plan') for use with ethnically diverse populations in an electronic communication environment, and optimize its usability in the practice setting. The second aim is to test the referral care plan in nine pediatric primary care and subspecialty practices in two states, using a stepped wedge cluster randomized trial, to evaluate its effect on communication, parent self-efficacy, and patient outcomes.

Primary Outcome

The main outcome measures of the intervention will be the number of days of lost parent work time or child school time, the number of child ER visits, and the number of unplanned hospital admissions in the 3 months after the specialty visit.

Interventions

• BEHAVIORAL Care plan and coaching