TVR_106-3

The Volta Review, Volume 106(3) (monograph), 259-274
Statewide Collaboration in
the Delivery of EHDI Services
Joni Alberg, Ph.D, Kathryn Wilson, M.A., CCC-SLP, Cert. AVT ® , and
Jackson Roush, Ph.D., CCC-A
Introduction
In 1999, North Carolina enacted legislation requiring the screening of all
newborn infants for hearing loss as part of a comprehensive statewide effort
to achieve early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI). This law (NCAC
43F.1201) requires physiologic screening prior to hospital discharge unless
declined by the parents or precluded by medical complications. Results are
then reported to the North Carolina State Laboratory for Public Health. Since
full implementation in August 2000, more than 700,000 babies have been born
in the state’s 90 birthing hospitals, and most have been screened successfully.
In the first few years following this legislation, much of the time, energy and
financial resources of the EHDI system were devoted to the screening itself:
establishing programs, equipping nurseries and training staff. But with each
passing year, there has been growing awareness of the need to focus on the
services that must be provided after the screening: comprehensive audiologic
assessment, otologic examination, and for infants found to have permanent
hearing loss, family support and referral for early intervention services.
This has resulted in opportunities as well as challenges and, not surprisingly,
there has been mixed success. Most importantly, those involved with
the statewide EHDI system have come to recognize that early identification
and intervention require the coordination and collaboration of many programs,
agencies, and institutions (JCIH 2000). The following program description
examines three components of North Carolina’s statewide EHDI
program that have undergone substantial growth and development as a result
of newborn screening: (1) the clinical and educational programs of the
Joni Alberg, Ph.D., is the executive director of BEGINNINGS for Parents of Children Who Are
Deaf or Hard of Hearing, Inc. Kathryn Wilson, M.A., CCC-SLP, Cert. AVT ® , is the director
of the Resource Support Program in the Office of Education Services for the North Carolina
Department of Health and Human Services and an adjunct professor at the University of
North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Jackson Roush, Ph.D., CCC-A, is professor and director of the
Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of North Carolina School of Medicine at
Chapel Hill, and the section head for audiology at the University of North Carolina Center for
the Study of Development and Learning.
Statewide EHDI Collaboration 259