This resource, developed by the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, provides valuable information about Otitis Media, its effects on homeless patients and the subsequent treatment recommendations.
Clinicians practicing in Health Care for the Homeless (HCH) projects and others who provide primary care to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness routinely adapt their medical practice to foster better outcomes for these patients.
Standard clinical practice guidelines often fail to take into consideration the unique challenges presented by homelessness that may limit patients’ ability to adhere to a plan of care. Recognizing the gap between standard clinical guidelines and clinical practices routinely used by health care providers experienced in the care of individuals who are homeless, the HCH Clinicians’ Network has made the adaptation of clinical practice guidelines for homeless patients one of its top priorities.
Recommendations for the care of homeless children with otitis media were initially developed in 2003 by primary care providers working in homeless health care across the United States. A second advisory committee, convened in 2008, reviewed and revised these recommended practice adaptations to assure their consistency with current clinical standards for the diagnosis and management of otitis media and with best practices in homeless health care. These clinicians, listed on the next page, represent several of the HCH projects that participated in the development of the first edition of these adapted clinical guidelines.
We offer this second edition of Adapting Your Practice: Treatment and Recommendations for Homeless Children with Otitis Media to promote continuing improvement in the quality of care provided to children in displaced families, whose lack of financial and social resources complicate the treatment and self-management of their illness. We hope these recommendations offer helpful guidance to primary care providers, and that they will contribute to improvements in the quality of care for disadvantaged children with acute ear infection or effusion and outcomes of that care. (Authors).