Health Access

Home Hospital Visitation

Health Access – The goal of this objective is to maintain support for outreach, enrollment and retention of children 0-5 years and pregnant women into the health insurance programs provided through the ACCEL Initiative and the Healthy Kids Healthy Futures (HKHF) Regional Health Insurance Initiative.  HKHF includes El Dorado, Sacramento and Colusa counties.

In order to ensure healthy growth and development, and identify potential health and/or developmental concerns early, children should have regular well-child visits and receive immunizations at appropriate stages.  To facilitate access to these important services the ACCEL Initiative and the Healthy Kids Healthy Future Regional Health Insurance Initiative are working to identify families eligible for health insurance programs, enroll these families in the programs, and connect these families and their children to medical homes.  The ACCEL Initiative has adopted a Pathways model that identifies the health needs of children and families and sets them on pathways towards positive health outcomes.   In 2001, an estimated 616 of the 9,133 children (7%) 0-5 in El Dorado County did not have health insurance, 488 of these children (79%) would be eligible for either Medi-Cal or Healthy Families. 

The expected outcomes of the Health Access Objective are to ensure children have medical insurance, a medical home, and utilize services for both preventive and emergency care.

Oral Health Access - The goal of the Oral Health Objective is to increase the number of providers in the Health Access Program to ensure outreach, enrollment and retention of children 0-5 years into dental insurance programs.

Access to early oral health care prevents tooth decay in young children and pain and suffering due to decay which can lead to other health and developmental complications in young children.  The California Smile Survey screened 10,949 kindergarten children statewide during the 2004-2005 school year.  The survey found that more than half of kindergarteners have experienced tooth decay and more than a quarter of them have untreated decay.  The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry encourages parents and other care providers to help every child establish a dental home by 12 months of age.  This program will follow the Pathways model adopted by the ACCEL Initiative for health insurance, medical homes and medical services.

The expected outcome of the Oral Health Access Objective is to increase the number of dental providers accepting Medi-Cal, Healthy Kids and Healthy Families insurance products. 

Home Hospital Visitation – The goal of this objective is to support and expand Home Hospital Visitation services providing nurturing and positive emotional support to all newborns and their mothers in the County.

Families with newborn children face emotional and socio-economic challenges as they adjust and adapt to their newborn child (ren).  Many families face additional challenges that complicate this adjustment period including challenging medial needs of the child or parent, siblings or family economics.  Home-Hospital Visitations will provide new parents with community resources and link to existing commission programs, priorities, and initiatives.  The visits will provide an opportunity to assess whether a family has health and dental insurance, are connected to a medical and dental home and promote child development through parent education and early education services.  Program strategies will be developed by collaborative partnerships and reviewed on an annual basis.

The expected outcome for the Home/Hospital Visitation Objective is to ensure all children born in the county receive support to address postpartum, neonatal care, and family support.