In Early Childhood, Continuous Care by One Doctor Improves Delivery of Health ...(ywhich children are most at risk of not ...),Health

"In 2008, there's a lot of discussion about the purpose of primary care and the benefits children achieve by having a regular doctor," said Alessandrini. "We don't want to forget the basics and if there are simple ways to ensure those aspects of primary care are met, then we should find ways to get them done."

Although they examined duration of office hours and other practice specific information, the researchers did not determine whether a medical office uses electronic records to alert providers when it was time for screening, a method shown in past studies to improve vaccination rates and other services.

Also, the authors caution that increasing continuity of care is difficult because certain office visits require immediate medical attention and parents may prefer their child see the first physician available rather than wait to see their regular doctor. Future studies are needed to monitor patients over a longer period of time and in a wider geographic region, the authors said.

Alessandrini's co-authors are Ana Flores, B.S., from The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and Warren Bilker, Ph.D., from the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania. Alessandrini's research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

About The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation's first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals and pioneering major research initiatives, Children's Hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its pediatric research program is among the largest in the country, ranking third in National Institutes of Hea
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