Grant Application

Ana Malinow, MD, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC

Proposed Innovation

Children from low-income families are less likely to have a source of primary care and are more likely to develop chronic health problems compared to children from more affluent families. At the Primary Care Center in Oakland, which schedules 36,000 appointments every year, pediatric patients miss about 10,000 appointments yearly.

This pilot project aims to make health care more accessible by bringing doctors to the community to conduct pediatric checkups at a nearby Family Support Center where low-income families routinely receive non-medical services.

Improvements in Action

Community Checkups turns physician-centered care on its head by creating a community health home where pediatric residents and supervisory faculty go to conduct well-child checkups. The goal is to increase the number of checkups for children at risk for missing appointments by addressing barriers in transportation and scheduling, promoting social support, and improving health outcomes.

Parents will be able to call and schedule appointments within 2 weeks. If needed, vans from the Family Support Center will be used to transport patients to appointments. Posters, flyers, and notebooks will be created to empower families to ask questions during their child’s checkup.

Intended Outcomes

A database will be set up to assess compliance with well-child visits. In addition, families will be surveyed to evaluate shared decision making. Providing care in the child’s neighborhood is expected to result in fewer missed appointments, increased immunization rates, and increased lead and anemia screening in toddlers and depression screenings in adolescents.