The survey asked several questions to determine whether CSHCN were receiving coordinated care:
- How satisfied are you with the communication among your child’s doctors and other health care providers, if needed?
- How satisfied are you with communication between your child’s health care providers and his/her school, early intervention program, child care providers, or vocational education or rehabilitation program, if needed?
- How often do you get as much help as you want with arranging or coordinating care, if needed?
For a child to qualify as receiving coordinated care, the parent had to report usually receiving help when needed and being “very satisfied” with communication among providers (when needed) and communication between providers and other programs (when needed). Overall, 46 percent of CSHCN received coordinated care by this definition.
Of the three individual elements of care coordination, the one that was least often met was communication among health care providers: the parents of 24 percent of CSHCN reported not being very satisfied. The parents of 15 percent of CSHCN reported that they did not usually receive help when needed, while the parents of 13 percent of CSHCN reported that they were not very satisfied with communication between health care providers and other programs.
