Finding a Medical Home Physician

Understand Your Child’s Needs

Identifying a “medical home” physician who can and will oversee transition can be a frustrating task and it ranks first in overall importance. Not all Pediatricians or Internal Medicine physicians are accustomed to treating the complex needs of a medically fragile child or young adult. You have to be creative and persistent in seeking an appropriate skilled pediatrician or internal medicine physician—word of mouth, referrals from hospitals, from specialists and your Internet searching are all ways of doing this.

Here are some possible scenarios:

• Your newborn child is in the hospital. The neonatologists (MDs who take care of newborns) treating your child will typically provide you with a referral to a pediatricians
• Your child is 5 years of age and has a congenital heart condition requiring surgery. The pediatric cardiologist will in most cases either follow the care of your child through his/her life up to age 18, or will refer you to an appropriate pediatrician.
• Your adolescent has been involved in a serious automobile accident and suffered brain injury. The physicians treating him/her at the hospital will provide you with referrals to specialist rehabilitation physicians, neurologists, and pediatricians conversant with these types of injuries.
• You have a child with asthma or autism spectrum disorder and you need to find a physician who will oversee his/her long term care needs—that is, act as the child’s medical home. Since you have no experience with his/her pre-existent condition in a hospital you are starting from a blank page. You have to be a strong advocate of your child’s needs and leave no stone unturned in your search. For example, the web site URL (below) is an excellent example of how mining deeper and deeper into the Internet can bring you promising referral and information results. On this page, you will find the names and contact information for the Executive Committee of Chapter 3 of the AAP—some of the region’s most experienced pediatricians—covering Manhattan, Bronx, Staten Island, and the upstate counties of Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, and Westchester. The AAP’s Chapter 3 currently has over 1,600 members, representing pediatricians and pediatric specialists. http://www.ny3aap.org/home/default.htm