title: Developmentally disabled infants can be hard to trace.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to determine how well the existing medical care system in a large geographic region communicates about and keeps track of the developmental problems of infants receiving tertiary inpatient care. Two hundred thirty-seven infants hospitalized in the first months of life were tracked, using a postal questionnaire at a mean age of 20 months. A discharge summary was present in 98 percent of charts, and a follow-up physician was identified in 95%. Questionnaires were returned by 116 physicians about 182 infants (77%). Seventy-one physicians had received a discharge summary. Current developmental information was obtained for 111 infants: 44 normal, 52 with known disabilities, and 15 with developmental delays. One hundred twenty-six infants could not be located at the time of the study. We conclude that many infants likely to have major disabilities are hard to track using simple retrospective techniques.
mesh_terms: D003266:Continuity of Patient Care; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000628:therapy*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006744:Hospital Bed Capacity, 100 to 299; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008498:Medical Record Linkage; D008499:Medical Records; D011320:Primary Health Care; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014861:Washington