|
After reading "Infant Screening Gains Media Spotlight" (June 19 issue), I would like to tell you about a program that is making strides in closing the gap. Ohio was one of the later states to adopt EHDI, yet we are one of the first to provide a follow-up/tracking program and intervention for families with children with hearing loss, provided by those professionals with expertise in working with infants and toddlers with hearing loss.
The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) disperses federal monies to 10 regional grant-funded programs (Regional Infant Hearing Program, RHIP) whose responsibility it is to track and follow up with infants who do not pass screening and provide family-centered intervention. By having a local agency responsible for the follow-up and intervention, there is often a seamless transition to intervention. The ODH and RIHP receive diagnostic follow-up test results through a standardized process. As project director of one of the regional programs, I may get a call from the audiologist at the completion of diagnostic testing as the family is leaving the audiologist's office. Families brag how we contacted them before they returned home. We are able to offer a home visit and support when the family needs it.
One challenge in our process is locating families whose contact information changed since their infant's hearing screening. It is critical that the medical home be involved, because if they continue to see the family they will work with us in referring for diagnostic testing, thus reducing loss to follow-up.
Sandra Brotman Domoracki
Tallmadge, Ohio
sdomorac@kent.edu
|