New Tools Make Using Bright Futures Guidelines Easier

New Tools Make Using Bright Futures Guidelines Easier (continued)
Continued from Page 1
The Tool and Resource Kit also features additional
materials to enhance providers’ ability to conduct
a Bright Futures visit. They include parent/patient
education handouts on a range of issues relevant to the
needs of all infants, children, and adolescents; practice
management tools for preventive care; and developmental,
behavioral, and psychosocial screening and
assessment tools.
Practitioners who participated in the development
and review process are keen on the advantages of
incorporating the Tool and Resource Kit into a busy
practice. Dr. Charles Barone of Henry Ford Health
System in Detroit notes that the Documentation Forms
in the Kit “keep you from asking the same questions
in every visit.” Dr. Jack Swanson, a pediatrician
in private practice in Ames, Iowa, says that the Kit
provides tools that “help the visit flow well.” He is
eager to use the Kit because it will help him put the
Bright Futures Guidelines into practice. “I’m looking
forward to being able to improve well-child visits and
interact with parents,” he says.
The idea for the Tool and Resource Kit arose because
surveys showed that care providers embrace the
Bright Futures approach and wanted tools that would
help them implement its detailed guidance within the
constraints of a 15-minute office visit. Paula Duncan,
one of the 3 editors of the Bright Futures Guidelines,
Third Edition, and a leader in developing the Tool
and Resource Kit, noted that this was a real challenge
facing the project team, but she articulated their
determination to get it right: “Let’s see if it’s doable in
everyday well-child care.”
“It’s been an interdisciplinary labor of love for the
well-being of all children,” says Mary Margaret
Gottesman, pediatric nurse practitioner, and an
associate professor and Specialty Program director in
the Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Program at The Ohio
State University College of Nursing. Dr. Gottesman
helped develop and review some of the materials in
the Kit. “It’s so user-friendly, attractive, and accurate,”
she says. “The forms provide a convenient system
of tracking patients and providing thorough care. We
know we’re covering everything we need to cover.
Efficiently.”
Dr. Gottesman added that she can give parents the
handouts and talk to them, knowing the messages will
be consistent. There won’t be any conflict between
what she says and the information in the handouts.
Noting the “countless hours” spent on researching,
developing and reviewing the materials, she says
she can give parents the handouts confident that the
information is accurate and reliable.
The Documentation Forms provide another
benefit that has proven elusive for care providers:
standardized care. All health care practitioners who
use Kit materials will be providing the same care
to their patients, regardless of location, social and
economic circumstances, patient load, and other
matters that result in health and health care disparities
in the US.
“It’s really important that we all approach wellchild
care in the same way,” Dr. Barone says. “The
Documentation Forms are complete and have all the
elements needed if these visits are audited by health
plans for HEDIS [Healthcare Effectiveness Data and
Information Set, a quality-of-care measurement used
by 90% of America’s health plans] or level of service.”
Registered nurse and educator Judith Shaw also was
instrumental in developing and reviewing the Tool
and Resource Kit. Dr. Shaw, executive director of the
Vermont Child Health Improvement Program and an
editor of the Bright Futures Guidelines, explains that
introducing these new tools into practice won’t happen
automatically. The Kit forms and other materials are
state-of-the-art, but the people who are going to use
them need time to become familiar with them before
they become routine.
Having a “champion” on staff who encourages
everyone to use the Kit is often a key to successful
implementation. Dr. Shaw suggests practices first
train their staffs in using the materials, and then
introduce them for a few patients on the first day, and
a few more on the next day, and so on, until everyone
becomes comfortable using them for every patient.
Some practices may choose to use only some of the
materials in the Kit, such as the Parent Handouts.
“We’re not trying to make the Bright Futures Tool
and Resource Kit prescriptive for everybody. We are
making it flexible for everybody to use, whatever their
population,” she said.
Dr. Joseph Hagan, a pediatrician and editor of the
Guidelines, who reviewed the Kit materials, puts it
simply: “Pediatricians feel passionately about care and
doing it efficiently. This will help them do it.” ■
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