Oklahoma

Oklahoma’s ABCD III project, Connecting the Docs: Improving Care Coordination and Delivery of Developmental Screening and Referral Services in Oklahoma, will advance systemic changes to improve outcomes for young children with and at risk for developmental delays.  This initiative builds on existing infrastructure to establish new and strengthen existing linkages among entities serving children and families.  Through its work in the Setting the Stage and ABCD Screening Academy projects Oklahoma has already implemented policy and practice changes that support improved identification of children at risk for developmental delay.  These provide a strong platform to improve linkages between primary care practices and community providers.  In addition, Oklahoma is transitioning to a patient-centered medical home model for delivery of care to Medicaid beneficiaries.  ABCD III project findings will inform the broader medical home work since coordination is key to an effective medical home.  Oklahoma has identified four issues it will address in ABCD III: (1) infrastructure to coordinate isolated initiatives designed to ensure follow-up for referrals, linkage of subsystems, and monitoring of process and outcome measures; (2) consistent single point of contact or consistent service provision infrastructure across communities; (3) process to assure that families of children at risk for delay are connected with appropriate services; and (4) resources and visibility in rural areas.