Is Your Child Ready for Transition to Adult Healthcare?

The kids are all grown up and getting ready to graduate from college. They are about to enter the real world and be completely out on their own. Scary, right? You have done everything you can to prepare them for what awaits. Or have you? Have you made sure that your child (or now adult) is prepared to transition from pediatric care to adult healthcare? According to research from the Journal of Adolescent Health, it is important to keep this in mind as your child comes closer and closer to adulthood. Research from the journal found that when a young adult transitions from pediatric care to an adult practice, the transition is made significantly smoother if organized processes are in place. In the research, the transition was found to be most efficient if planning was started around age 12-14. Margaret McManus, lead author of the journal, explained that research showed there 18 million adolescents in the U.S. who are 18-21. She then emphasized that about 25% of them have chronic health conditions and most are not ready to make the transition to adult healthcare. In the research study, McManus observed how effective the “Six Core Elements of Health Care Transition” were in helping current pediatric patients in the transition.

Pediatric Core Transition Elements

  1. Office policy on transition
  2. Provider knowledge and skills related to transition
  3. Registry identifying transitioning youth
  4. Transition prep
  5. Transition planning
  6. Transfer of care
The study took place with five primary care practices in the D.C. area. Significant improvements were found after the core elements had been applied over five day-and-a-half learning classes paired with phone assistance and practice visits. Improvements were seen in tracking the transitioning youth, establishing transition policies and transferring with up-to-date medical information. However, limitations to this educational process with the core elements are:

Transition Limitations

  • Lack of payment for transition work
  • Functionality problems with EHRs and core elements
  • No care coordination infrastructure
 

Transition with Wake Internal Medicine Consultants            

At Wake Internal Medicine Consultants (WIMC), we have a pediatric and internal medicine department. We have physicians who specialize in Med-Peds. Med-Peds is a combination of pediatrics and internal medicine. This means that our providers are board certified in both and can provide care from birth all the way through adulthood. The Med-Peds specialty allows us to develop a relationship and patient history with our patients that makes transitioning your child from pediatrics to adult healthcare as efficient as possible. Often times there isn’t much of a transition needed at all, because our patients are already in our EHR system. Even if your child is not a WIMC pediatric patient we can work with you and your family to help make the pediatric transition to adult healthcare easy. For more information about the transition process and all of the services WIMC provides, contact us at one of our Raleigh, NC offices.