A review of the evidence for the medical home for children with special health care needs

To the Editor.—

We commend Homer et al for their review of the evidence for the medical home for children with special health care needs. A review of the evidence to assess outcomes is long overdue. As other disciplines have begun to profess the need for and implement aspects of medical homes for all patients, this article will likely be of great significance. However, we express some reservations in the recommendations of the authors, specifically that “[a]dditional studies with comparison groups encompassing all or most of the attributes of the medical home need to be undertaken.”

The Michigan State University Child Health Care Clinic developed a medical home intervention study for children with special health care needs in 2006, supported by the Michigan Department of Community Health. We began the study as a randomized, controlled trial, with half of the children receiving usual care and half receiving the additional…