Health Care Transition

In 2004, Texas Children's Hospital established a Transition Committee with the purpose of improving the health care transition (HCT) of youth and young adults with chronic illness and disabilities from pediatric to adult-based care. The focus of the efforts was to develop, implement and study the impact of an electronic health record-based transition planning tool (TPT) to be used by clinical providers in their encounters with teens and young adults. The TPT is now being used by 10 services in Texas Children's Hospital.
The TPT is one component of Texas Children's Hospital’s larger HCT program, which is organized around three teams:  Readiness, Hand Off and Transfer. 
The purpose of these teams is to:
  • Organize a system of HCT through which youth and families are prepared for HCT
  • Assure there are mechanisms in place to facilitate the logistics of the transfer to adult-based care
  • Assure that the adult providers and systems are being readied to receive the patients into their systems of care
The Section of Adolescent Medicine and Sports Medicine faculty and staff are planning leadership in these efforts, especially on the Readiness phase of the program.
Health Care Transition Resources

Baylor Transition Conference

Health care transition (HCT) is the purposeful movement of adolescents and young adults with chronic conditions from child-centered to adult-centered care. It is an important component of the life course of youth/young adults with special health care needs (YSHCN).
 
Since 2000, Baylor College of Medicine Section of Adolescent Medicine and Sports Medicine at Texas Children’s Hospital has sponsored the 2-day “Chronic Illness and Disability: Transition from Pediatric to Adult-based Care Conference.”
 
The purpose of the conference is to bring together health care professionals and YSHCN and their families to further each other’s knowledge about and skills related to HCT. The conference is important for the educational content and opportunity for interaction between YSHCN, families, community agencies and academic experts on HCT from around the U.S., Canada and other countries. It also represents a model of collaboration among YSHCN, families, the Texas Title V CYSHCN Program, the MCHB funded Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD), Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor University’s Robbins Institute.
 
Health care professionals targeted by the conference include internal medicine; pediatric and family medicine physicians; other health care providers including psychologists; social workers; nurses; dietitians; case managers; counselors and public health officials; and community agency representatives. This audience, plus YSHCN and family members, creates a unique opportunity for interdisciplinary and family-centered care interchange.
 
The conference includes didactic presentations, parent and young adult panels, breakout sessions, and question and answer sessions. Since 2011, the conference was held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Health Care Transition Research Consortium (HCTRC), which added an important research component. The AUCD supported the live broadcast of the Conference to LEND and other training programs across the U.S. The Texas Title V CYSHCN Program sponsored live broadcast of the Conference to many sites in Texas (5 in 2011 and 14 in 2013).
 
Videos of archived lectures presented at past conferences can now be viewed on YouTube:

For Healthcare Providers