HealthWatch-Finding a medical home

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - Children are prone to getting sick, and the illnesses can range from a simple common cold to something more serious. To make sure their children are getting consistent proper care, parents should find a medical home.

“A medical home is a home base per say that you and your family can always go to and get your needs taken care of. It’s a facility, a medical doctor, a team of providers that can provide that care. The benefits of a medical home include that one place, one provider, knows all about your child’s medical history, including hospitalizations, surgeries, medications you have tried, whether those medications worked or not,” said Dr. Cara Hamilton, Black Hills Pediatrics.

“They’ll have a family history, where they’ll know which family members have suffered from which ailments and whether those ailments are hereditable or not, social history, where your child goes to school, who they live with, etc. This can be really beneficial because most of the time those medical homes can provide not only wellness care and annual visits and vaccines but also acute care for those ear infections and strep throats.

“They can do work ups for headaches or adnominal pains and help make appropriate referrals, when necessary, based on those acute findings or chronic findings. A medical home can provide referrals to specialists when appropriate could provide referrals to different therapists, physical, speech, or psychological therapist for help taking care of your child.

“Your provider can order X-rays and labs to look further into those problems as needed. They can communicate directly with specialists in order to cut down on your time of investigation and to help get medical to medical communication down.

If you have questions about a medial home, make sure to talk to a provider,” she said.

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