Child Development - Philadelphia Children's Hospital Study Finds in Early Childhood, Continuous Care by One Doctor Improves Delivery of Health Screenings

By Colleen Hurley, RD, Certified Kid’s Nutrition Specialist

Regular check ups are an important component of health, especially for a growing and developing baby.  It turns out that keeping with the same physician can be as equally as important as those regular check ups.  A new study reveals that children examined by the same physician during the first 6 months of life are more likely to receive the necessary preventative health screenings by the age of 2.

 Being cared for by the same physician, also referred to as continuity of care, played a critical role for the children in the study.  Published in the March edition of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Pediatrics medical journal, the study was conducted by the University of Philadelphia along with the Philadelphia Children’s Hospital.  Researchers examined 1,564 infants with Medicare insurance all born at the children’s hospital between July 1999 and March 2001. 

The children received health care at over 120 primary care physicians and all doctors’ visits were monitored, including “well child” visits.  The preventative health screening the researchers were on the lookout for included lead poisoning, tuberculosis, and anemia.  Children most at risk often do not receive these preventative screenings, which can have health implications later in life.  Iron deficiency anemia can lead to problems with movement or loss to hearing or vision, while lead poisoning can lead to lower intelligence later in life.  Although tuberculosis is much less common these days, it can still cause health problems for children if undetected.

Previous studies revealed that the use of electronic medical records that alert physicians when it is time for a screening have improved the number of the children screened.  For this study, authors only looked at business hours of the practices and other practice specific information; not the use of electronic versus manual data recording. 

Future attempts to improve outcomes should focus on reducing the number of pediatricians a child sees, in addition to increasing the number of visits to a primary care doctor.  Authors note increasing the continuity of care may be difficult because in emergency situations, parents will see the first doctor available instead of waiting for their own pediatrician.  Researchers conclude this will be the first of many studies to try to pinpoint methods of increasing continuity of care as well as preventative health screenings in infants and children.