Getting Started Guide: Implementing a Screening Process
Routine screening in pediatric practice is essential for identifying risks to a young child’s development early, linking families to follow-up services, and improving outcomes. Our Getting Started Guide: Implementing a Screening Process is designed to help pediatric practice teams to develop a screening workflow tailored for their practice and the families they serve. The guide is a fillable worksheet with step-by-step planning considerations and questions, implementation guidance, and links to additional resources.
Step-by-Step Prompts to Develop a Screening Process
When completing this guide, pediatric practice teams will work through the steps below. We recommend that the full team – including clinicians, nurses, office staff, family leaders, and others – is included when completing the guide to ensure that the process is best tailored to your practice’s needs and structure.
- Step 1. Identify Current Screening Tools: List the formal assessments that are used for different screening types, including developmental, social-emotional, autism, perinatal depression, and social drivers of health.
- Step 2. Identify Your Practice Champion: Assign who will lead the screening process.
- Step 3. Identify the Practice Team Members Who Will Be Part of the Process: Determine what team members will provide support and what their roles will be.
- Step 4. Select the Screening Tool(s) and Education Materials That Will Be Used: Identify tools for each screening type that best meet your practice’s needs.
- Step 5. Plan Key Parts of the Workflow for Each Screening Category: Establish your team’s workflow across each screening type.
- Step 5 includes a multi-question worksheet to help you consider all key screening process steps, such as how to discuss screening with families, how to document at-risk scores in diagnosis, and more.
- Step 6. Identify Screening Program Support: Determine the national and local partners and resources that can support your screening process.
- Step 6 lists several possibilities for your team to consider, including programs to help enhance your practice, family-facing education materials, partners for child developmental support needs, community and state partners, child and family mental health partners, and additional resources.
- Step 7. Engage Staff in the Concepts, Principles, and Process: Plan for how staff will be involved throughout the screening process, such as developing a screening tool “script” and monitoring progress.
