Quality Improvements in Primary Care for Children with Special Health Care Needs: Use of a Brief Screening Measure

With the goal of identifying a population of children in primary care settings who may benefit from quality improvements in their care, we examined a new method of screening children for chronic health conditions. Parents of children treated in a pediatric clinic (N = 769) completed the screening measure. Approximately 1 in 5 children had a chronic physical, developmental, behavioral, or emotional condition, which is similar to prevalence rates in national surveys. Among children with chronic conditions (n = 162), 79% required prescription medications, 70% had above-average service use, and 28% had functional limitations. The use of the screener in primary care settings has the potential to identify a vulnerable group of children who need comprehensive and coordinated care.