Expand the Scope of Home-based Services for Parents: 5

Expanding the scope of home-based services for parents is important because it allows us to reach people who would otherwise struggle to access needed medical services.  

This item was emphasized in our Strategic Plan because for years we noticed a frustrating peculiarity: when we went walking through our partner schools to talk to teachers or use the restroom, we’d stumble upon children who had no-showed for their patient appointments earlier in the same day! Historically, when we were not able to complete a patient appointment, it wasn’t because the children weren’t available, it’s because the parents were not available. They couldn’t make it to the school due to another obligation: work, couldn’t get a babysitter for younger siblings, or a competing, emergency appointment. 

In the first year of our Strategic Plan implementation, before the pandemic, we began allowing parents to access their child’s appointment virtually. We expanded our implementation of virtual visits during the pandemic, and we continue to offer parents the opportunity to connect to their child’s appointment remotely. Mobile Care also launched virtual home assessments during the pandemic, which have allowed us to provide a greater level of convenience and care to patient families. Our COVID vaccination team, as of last month, has completed 1,000 home-based COVID-19 vaccinations, and recently began offering flu shots for home-bound seniors as well. I believe that we are in a good place with our home-based services, though we will continue to pursue home-based expansion opportunities to the benefit of the families we serve. 

-Kamari Thompson, Director of Patient Services