United Hospital Fund

Stressors beyond the reach of the health care system — such as inadequate housing, unemployment, poor nutrition, and poverty — compound illness. UHF is responding to the urgent demand to address these underlying drivers of health inequities and building a network of committed doctors and other clinicians with the focus and skills needed to make positive change. Meet one of them:

A Long Island City pediatrician—a fellow in United Hospital Fund’s Pediatrics for an Equitable Developmental Start Learning Network Fellowship Program—was frustrated by the hurdles non-English speaking parents in her clinic faced when bringing their babies to the doctor.

She decided to start printing educational, index-sized, laminated cards for families in their native language with guidelines from the CDC’s “Learn the Signs, Act Early” program. The goal was to help parents recognize whether their child was reaching important developmental milestones.

With United Hospital Fund’s support, this pediatrician’s fellowship idea later evolved beyond index cards into a full-fledged quality improvement project for the clinic—educating clinicians and training ancillary staff to not only work with parents to identify developmental delays but also to successfully refer children to available services for early intervention.

The results speak for themselves: In just over a year, the clinic nearly doubled its referral rate. As importantly, the number of children who were then approved for services—such as speech therapy, physical therapy, psychological services, and family education and counseling—also spiked. This matters because any services not covered by insurance are provided free to families thus offering countless children served by this clinic the opportunity to start their young lives with little or no developmental delays or with appropriate supports to allow them to flourish.

This pediatrician is just one of the clinical leaders benefiting from UHF’s 15-month fellowship program that aims to reduce health and educational inequities across New York during the critical first few years of a child’s life and a real-life example of innovation happening at the front line of health care.