3. The Healthy Steps Program

Transcription

1 3. The Healthy Steps Program The Healthy Steps Program The Healthy Steps program was designed to enhance the ability of pediatric practices to serve families with young children. With the support and leadership of The Commonwealth Fund and many cooperating local foundations, the Healthy Steps demonstration program served more than 4,000 families with newborn children in 24 sites across the country. [Fifteen of these sites were part of the national evaluation, which is described in this report.] More than 125 clinicians, including residents and nurse practitioners, were involved in the initiative. The key feature of the Healthy Steps program was the Healthy Steps Specialist. Healthy Steps Specialists were professionals with training in early childhood development, nursing, or social work. Each site had two Specialists, very often with complementary professional backgrounds. During the 3-year intervention, each Healthy Steps Specialist had a caseload of approximately 100 families. The charge to the Healthy Steps Specialist and the sites was to provide a mix of services for families that had not previously been offered by the practice, or had not been offered in such intensity. The Healthy Steps program comprised seven major elements: Enhanced well child care: Well child office appointments, conducted jointly or sequentially by a pediatrician, family physician, or nurse practitioner, and a Healthy Steps Specialist, were designed to answer parents questions about child development; to identify and respond to teachable moments; and to encourage early reading activities as part of the Reach Out and Read Program. Home visits by Healthy Steps Specialists: Home visits were timed to reach parents and their children at key developmental junctures over the first three years of the children s lives. Child development telephone information line: Healthy Steps Specialists at each site staffed a telephone line to answer parents questions about day-to-day worries and developmental concerns. Child development and family health check-ups: Check-ups with developmental assessments were conducted to detect signs of developmental or behavioral problems and to identify family health risks. Written materials for parents that emphasized prevention and health promotion: Parents received materials prior to and during office visits that addressed medical, developmental, and practical topics. Parents also received a Child Health and Development Record that chronicled immunizations, physical growth, developmental milestones, and parental concerns through age 18. Parent groups: Meetings were facilitated by the Healthy Steps Specialists to offer social support as well as opportunities for interactive learning opportunities. Linkages to community resources: The Healthy Steps Specialists at each site compiled a book listing community resources. At some sites, Specialists developed a bulletin board in the practice that displayed a variety of information pertinent to child development and community resources. Two additional features stand out as basic to the approach of Healthy Steps: an emphasis on relationships between staff and families and on teamwork among staff members. 3-1

2 3. THE HEALTHY STEPS PROGRAM 3.1. Introduction The Healthy Steps (HS) program was designed to enhance the ability of pediatric practices to serve families with young children. Through the program, practices were to help parents increase their understanding of all aspects of their children s development and to improve their comfort and competence in parenting. The HS program was based on the recognition that: Infancy is a period of extraordinarily rapid development. Infancy is often a highly stressful period for parents. Infancy is a time when parents are likely to be particularly open to new ideas. Pediatric practices are the institutions that are likely to see families of young children first, and often most frequently, during the earliest years of a child s life. 3.1 The philosophy of HS is well summarized by the statement that: The best way of helping children is to help their parents, and the best way of reaching parents is through their children (Parker and Zuckerman, 1998). With the support and leadership of The Commonwealth Fund (CWF) and many cooperating local foundations, the HS demonstration program served more than 4,000 families with newborn children in 24 sites across the country. [Fifteen of these sites were part of the National Evaluation, which is described in this report.] More than 125 clinicians, including residents and nurse practitioners, were involved in the initiative. Children were entered into the program by their parents either in the hospital at the time of birth or during their first visit to the practice. Unless their parents moved away, withdrew from the practice, or withdrew from the HS program, children remained in the program until age three years. 3.1 Guidelines of the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that there be ten well-child visits in the first three years of life (American Academy of Pediatrics, 1997). 3-2

3 3.2. The Healthy Steps Program 3.2.A. The Healthy Steps Specialist The key feature of the HS program was the HS Specialist. These specialists became new partners in the delivery of pediatric care. HS Specialists were professionals with training in early childhood development, nursing, or social work. Each site had two Healthy Steps Specialists, very often with complementary professional backgrounds. Each HS Specialist had a caseload of approximately 100 families. 3.2.B. Seven Basic Elements of Healthy Steps The charge to the HS Specialist and the sites was to provide a mix of services for families that had not previously been offered by the practice, or not offered in such intensity. There were seven major elements to the program. 3.2.B.1. Enhanced Well Child Care: Joint or Linked (sequential) Office Visits The HS Specialist met with the family at the office either at the same time as the pediatric clinician (joint visit) or immediately before or after (linked visit). The HS Specialist discussed with families their questions and concerns about their child s behavior and development. If they met before the clinician s visit, the HS Specialist discussed what parents might wish most to ask the doctor and prepared them to ask it. The HS Specialist also provided anticipatory guidance looking at what might be occurring next in the child s development and how that might best be handled. The HS Specialist reviewed questions of safety. Specialists looked for teachable moments, in which reactions to the child s behavior in the office could be modeled for the parents and discussed with them. The importance of books, even for The HS Specialists The HS Specialists employed at the 15 national evaluation sites ranged in age from 25 to 55 years. Sixteen (44.4%) were registered nurses, of whom half (8) were pediatric nurse practitioners. Twenty-four (66.7%) had Masters degrees and 9 (25.0%) Bachelors degrees. All but one were female. The HS Specialists brought to their new positions a variety of experience and training in social work, early childhood education, child development and psychology. Almost all had prior work experience or formal course work in child development (97%), child growth (97%), psychology (97%), and family relationships (94%). The majority had experience in crisis intervention (89%), case management (86%), maternal and child health (83%) social work (81%), and home visiting (58%). Almost 70% had prior experience and/or training in physical assessment and 50% in diagnosis and treatment. Although 92% were familiar with developmental assessments when they began their jobs, most had little experience with the specific assessments used in the program. The majority saw their new role as an opportunity to make a contribution to pediatric practice, to help families, and to learn new skills. Source: Thirty-six HS Specialists representing all of the national evaluation sites completed a short questionnaire at the beginning of the evaluation or their employment. BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS In a Healthy Steps practice, well-child visits follow the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidelines for scheduled visits and immunizations. Each visit is likely to offer several teachable moments, when pediatric clinicians and HS Specialists can draw on their observation of the child and the parents natural interest in their baby s health and development to communicate information effectively about behavior, temperament, and goodness of fit. In the process, clinicians and HS Specialists can also strengthen the crucial relationship between themselves and mothers and fathers. Source: Kaplan-Sanoff M, Zuckerman B, Parker S, Bernard, A, Magee T, Lawrence P, Ed. Levine TK, Healthy Steps Strategies for Change, Child Development in Primary Care for Young children, Department of Pediatrics, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, 1999, p

4 Seven Elements of Healthy Steps babies, and the development of early literacy skills were discussed with families. [In fact, starting at the 6-month visit, each child received a book from the clinician at each office visit, as part of the Reach Out and Read Program.] The HS Specialist also asked about stresses the family might be experiencing, including parental conflict, maternal depression, smoking, and substance abuse. Specialists gave parents printed handouts on particularly relevant subjects. 3.2.B.2. Home Visits Within the three years of the program HS Specialists were expected to offer a minimum of six home visits to the 100 families in their caseloads. One home visit was to occur within the first few weeks after birth, with the expectation that the HS Specialist might encourage continued breastfeeding and give support as patterns of care were being first established. Another home visit was to be at about nine months, as the child was becoming mobile. Safety hazards in and around the house were the focus of this visit. As part of home visits, HS Specialists usually left a relevant handout for parents to read at their convenience. Home visits were scheduled at the mutual convenience of HS Specialist and family and continued throughout the toddler period. As with all other aspects of the program, families were free to decline home visits either one by one or altogether. 3.2.B.3. The Child Development Telephone Information Line Healthy Steps Specialists at each site had a dedicated telephone line for communication with families. The HS Specialist might call to see how things were going or to remind a mother of an upcoming office visit. HS Specialists often received parental requests for advice or assistance, typically handling questions on subjects such as crying, sleep problems, discipline, and family disagreements about discipline. With some families, HS Specialists fielded calls on subjects such as financial difficulties and marital problems. Families could call as often or as infrequently as they chose. All families were promised a response to their phone calls within 24 hours. In taking phone calls, an important part of the task of the HS Specialist was to triage phone calls and to refer calls appropriately to the health professionals in the practice. Healthy Steps Specialist and a package of services, including: Enhanced well child care: Well child office appointments were conducted jointly or sequentially by a pediatrician, family physician, or nurse practitioner, and a Healthy Steps (HS) Specialist. These visits were designed to answer parents questions about child development; to identify and respond to teachable moments; and to encourage early reading activities as part of the Reach Out and Read Program. Home visits by HS Specialists: Home visits were timed to reach parents and their children at key developmental junctures over the first three years of the children s lives. Child development telephone information line: Telephone lines at each site were staffed by HS Specialists to answer parents questions about day-to-day worries and developmental concerns. Child development and family health check-ups: Check-ups with developmental assessments were conducted to detect signs of developmental or behavioral problems, and to identify family health risks. Written materials for parents that emphasized prevention and health promotion: Parents received materials prior to and during office visits that addressed medical, developmental, and practical topics. They also received a Child Health and Development Record that chronicled immunizations, physical growth, developmental milestones, and parental concerns through age 18. Parent groups: Meetings were facilitated by the HS Specialists to offer social support as well as interactive learning opportunities. Linkages to community resources: The HS Specialists compiled a book listing community resources, and developed a bulletin board in the practice that displayed an assortment of resource information. Source: The Commonwealth Fund: The Healthy Steps for Young Children Program Brochure,

5 3.2.B.4. Child Development and Family Health Check-Ups Each HS Specialist periodically administered standardized developmental assessment tools, to check on each child s development and discuss it with the child s parent. Sometimes these more formal check-ups on development were administered at an office visit; sometimes they were administered at home. At the earliest visit, the HS Specialist used parts of the Brazelton Neonatal Assessment instrument to assess the child and begin to provide the family with information about their child s responses and capabilities. The Denver Developmental Screening Test (DDST) was used on a periodic basis. The MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory was typically used as language began to emerge. 3.2.B.5. Written Materials for Parents that Emphasize Prevention Written materials were developed specifically for HS with the goals of informing mothers and fathers about their child s development and also involving them more in their child s care. Age-appropriate newsletters, called Linkletters, were mailed to the family before each scheduled well child appointment. These contained information likely to come up at the visit. Ageappropriate Parent Prompt Sheets, given to parents at check-in for well child visits, suggested questions to ask the pediatric team. A Child Health and Development Record provided to parents at the beginning of the program, could be used to record the child s growth and development, immunizations, and illnesses. The booklet also contained information on developmental milestones and safety. Other handouts also were developed and distributed that provided information on developmental and behavioral topics as well as medical and more practical issues. These handouts facilitated parent involvement during well-child visits (Kaplan- Sanoff M, 2001). 3.2.B.6. Parent Groups Group discussions for participants in the program were offered by the HS Specialists. Specialists facilitated discussions with interested parents about issues that many of them seemed to be facing or were about to face. Parents had the opportunity to share ideas and reactions with each other and to feel the support of others who were going through similar experiences. 3-5

6 3.2.B.7. Links to community resources Healthy Steps Specialists compiled information about services available in the community for their participants. These might be more intensive services than the HS Specialist could provide, such as a smoking cessation program or mental health services. Information on quality childcare centers or early intervention services might also be included. This information was available in written form but also through discussion between parent and HS Specialists Features Basic to Healthy Steps Two additional features stand out as basic to the approach of HS: an emphasis on relationships between staff and families and an emphasis on teamwork among staff members. These aspects were emphasized in almost all materials about the program. They were also emphasized in the hiring and training of personnel for the program, in technical assistance to the sites during the program, and in what staff and families said about the program. 3.3.A. Relationships Between Staff and Families It was envisioned that physicians would themselves be open to a broader range of discussion with families than had previously been the case. Nevertheless, the majority of relationship-building became the responsibility of the HS Specialists. HS Specialists knew from the outset that they were to allow families the luxury of time in talking with them. They understood that they were to be approachable and available to participants. They were to be respectful in all aspects of their manner in dealing with participants. They also were to be highly flexible in meeting the needs of participants. These, taken together, were to be used to develop a sense of rapport or at least greater understanding with the families they served. They understood they would be likely to have many more contacts with some families than with others, depending on the wishes and needs of each family. Healthy Steps Specialists also were trained to explore some of the more sensitive issues of parenting, such as how a mother herself was parented. 3.3.B. Teamwork Among Staff Members Healthy Steps put staff members in an organizational framework with each other that was less hierarchical and more cooperative than most current models of pediatric practice. Like all new projects, it was expected to require careful planning among members of the practice staff. It was also designed to create 3-6

7 operational approaches that allowed for candor, flexibility, and mutual respect among team members Healthy Steps Program Protocols A set of written protocols and guidelines, observed by the 15 sites enrolled in the national evaluation and monitored by the Healthy Steps National Program Office (NPO), described the HS Specialists role and key elements of the program. Consistency in the way the program was delivered across the 15 sites was promoted by the specificity of these protocols, program materials provided to each practice, and the uniform training of the practices in the program components and philosophy Training Ongoing training was an essential part of the HS program. Key personnel from each site participated in three annual Healthy Steps Training Institutes in Boston, Massachusetts. As outlined in the Healthy Steps Program Progress Review, 3.2 the four goals of training were: 1. To translate new knowledge in child development, parenting and women s health and practical clinical strategies for clinicians. 2. To emphasize the importance of relationships between parent and child, and parent and professional. 3. To create multi-disciplinary teams of pediatric clinicians and HS Specialists. 4. To help participants transform their pediatric practices into HS practices. Training institutes were conducted by a multidisciplinary team and were based on principles of adult learning that include casebased problem solving and other interactive strategies. Participants brought cases from their daily practices to supplement cases and video vignettes presented by the trainers. Further, each participant received a training manual that 3.2 Healthy Steps Training Overview in Healthy Steps Program Progress Review, April 18, 1997, page

8 Healthy Steps Program Protocols OBJECTIVE Deliver Healthy Steps services to families in a timely and coordinated manner. Provide child behavior and developmental information, guidance, and assessment to families, helping parents to develop confidence in their parenting abilities. Create a solid relationship between the family and the Healthy Steps team. Collect or ensure the collection of evaluation data. Coordinate the Healthy Steps activities of the entire Healthy Steps team. Healthy Steps Specialist Enhanced Well Child Care Strategies Create teachable moments, when parents are most receptive to information concerning their child s development and behavior. Encourage positive maternal health behavior (e.g., linkages with obstetrical care, breastfeeding, referrals for maternal depression and smoking cessation). Strengthen the relationship between the family and the Healthy Steps practice. Promote early language development. Engage in problem solving jointly with parents. Promote and support the involvement of fathers in the care and nurturing of the child. Home Visits Build a supportive relationship between the Healthy Steps practice and the family. Enable the Healthy Steps Specialist to better understand how the child s home environment can help foster growth and development and use this information in working with parents. Provide information on child behavior and development, infant care, safety, and injury prevention within the context of the home environment. Conduct developmental assessments. Telephone Line Provide information to parents on issues of child development and behavior, thereby promoting parental confidence, strengthening the parent-child relationship, and decreasing parental stress, insecurity, and feelings of isolation. Strengthen the relationship between parents, the Healthy Steps Specialist, and the pediatric practice. Support doctors/pediatric nurse practitioners by providing information to parents and addressing their concerns about developmental and behavioral issues during off-hours when doctors/pediatric nurse practitioners are unavailable. Reinforce information that doctors/pediatric nurse practitioners share with parents on issues of normal child development and temperament. EXPECTED OUTCOMES (EXAMPLES) In-office meetings with families. Seamless hand-off between Healthy Steps Specialist and doctor/pediatric nurse practitioner of clinical/medical and behavioral/developmental matters. Home visits conducted as desired by parents. Healthy Steps Child Health and Development Record reviewed with parents and kept current. Handouts distributed to follow up on topics discussed during home and well-child visits. Responses provided to inquiries on the Healthy Steps Telephone Information Line. Attendance and participation of parents in parents groups. Identification and discussion of issues arising from child and family assessment. Referrals made to community resources. Maintenance of age-appropriate immunization coverage. Identification and use of teachable moments. Strengthened relationship between the family and the Healthy Steps practice. Better linkages between obstetrical care of mothers and pediatric care of infants. Longer durations of breastfeeding (relative to pre- Healthy Steps average of practice). Referrals for maternal depression and smoking cessation. Visits will be scheduled by the Healthy Steps Specialist and carried out. A positive, supportive relationship will evolve between the Healthy Steps Specialist/ practice and the family. Parents will feel comfortable requesting additional home visits, as needed. The Healthy Steps team will have more information about a child s home environment (e.g., safety, comfort, toys, etc.) so they can better advise parents on how to promote the child s health and development. Parents will make use of the Healthy Steps Telephone Information Line when they have concerns about development, behavior, and parenting. Timely and useful information will be provided by the Healthy Step Specialist in response to calls, resulting in greater parental confidence and reduced stress. A stronger relationship will be forged between parents and the Healthy Steps Specialist and by extension, between parents and the practice. Medical calls will be successfully triaged to the medical information/emergency advice line. 3-8

9 Healthy Steps Program Protocols OBJECTIVE Identify the strengths and concerns of the child and family. Enhance parents understanding of their child s development through feedback requested by parents and in other teachable moments. Monitor child s healthy growth and development. Promote goodness of fit between child s behavior and parental expectations. Engage in collaborative problem solving with parents to determine how best to address developmental issues. Make necessary referrals to community resources. Build a supportive alliance with the family. Record the child s health and developmental information. Increase parents knowledge of their child s health, growth, and development. Serve as an interactive vehicle for communication between the parents and the Healthy Steps team. Strengthen the relationship between the family and the Healthy Steps team. Developmental Assessments Child Health and Development Record EXPECTED OUTCOMES (EXAMPLES) Parents will be well informed of expected behaviors and developmental milestones. Healthy Steps team can better advise parents on how to promote their child s health and development. Referrals will be made to appropriate community resources on a timely basis. Parents will come to well-child visits with prepared questions. Parents will show greater understanding and awareness of their child s health, growth, and development. Handouts Provide information in a concise and comprehensive manner on a variety of medical, developmental, and practical topics. Increase parents knowledge of the topics covered in the handouts. Provide informational resource that Healthy Steps Specialists can refer to when they take calls on the Healthy Steps Telephone Information Line. Parents will request handout on specific topic. Parents will ask the Healthy Steps team questions related to information in the handouts. Parents will request new handouts addressing other topics. More efficiently provide general information to parents and enhance parent learning through group discussions and question/answer sessions. Create opportunities for parents in the Healthy Steps practice to develop an informal peer support system. Expose parents to different styles of parenting and interpretations or applications of child development information as they establish their own approach to child rearing. Promote the exchange of information among Healthy Steps families in the practice. Provide families with easy access to available information on the practice and community resources related to family health and child development. Encourage families to seek assistance, if needed, by providing information on referral and treatment programs. Parent Groups Linking with Community Resources A minimum of one group session or seminar will be held each month. Parents will suggest topics and participate in the groups. Parents will meet peers and informal parent support networks will emerge. Practices will find this is an efficient way to provide information. Practices will find that this increases parent satisfaction with the services they offer. Information on the practice, childcare issues, and community resources will be readily available to parents. Parents will avail themselves of resources described above. Parents will have greater knowledge of community resources. The Healthy Steps Specialist will make appropriate referrals to community resources. 3-9

10 described the program in detail and reviewed, reinforced and supplemented information presented in the training sessions. Each training institute typically included a cohort of three to five sites, with two physicians, two HS Specialists, and a practice administrator from each site. The training institutes covered many topics not usually included in the education of pediatric health care providers. These included early brain development, breast-feeding, newborn and child development assessment, maternal depression, promoting early learning and reading, family health behaviors, and systems change within pediatric settings. During the second and third years, three-day training institutes centered on team processes, as well as on content pertaining to toddler and preschool development and clinical problems. In principle, upon completing the initial training institute and returning to their sites, lead physicians were expected to provide an orientation to HS for all practice staff. In reality, this trainthe-trainer approach did not work as expected. Additional opportunities were created to increase the number of site staff attending the second and third year training institutes. Following the initial training, HS Specialists participated in biweekly technical assistance teleconference sessions with key Boston University School of Medicine (BU) training staff (Zuckerman et al., 1997). These teleconferences provided a forum for answering questions, reinforcing training, and troubleshooting implementation issues. These continued throughout the program but their frequency decreased over time and their focus changed somewhat to topics of interest to the HS Specialists. During the second year, calls focused less on implementation and more on clinical concerns National Program Office Support Support from the NPO complemented the training institutes and technical assistance calls. Initial visits made by key national program staff and evaluators to prospective HS sites offered the opportunity to introduce implementation issues at a very early stage in the site s planning, to anticipate potential barriers to implementation at the sites, and to take steps to resolve them. Topics that became part of routine discussions at these visits included implementation issues such as the need for integration of new staff into the practice and the extent of organizational change required. 3-10

11 In addition to the training manuals and HS program materials, the NPO created a set of HS program manuals and other written materials to guide sites in the practical operational and financial aspects of implementing HS. The manuals made recommendations for orienting the HS Specialist to the practice and infrastructure needs to help sites plan more effectively. They included the contact information for individuals designated from the national program and evaluation staff to address specific implementation and evaluation issues. To help sites make more information available to families enrolling in HS, the manuals included prototypes for a press release and fact sheet for the HS local initiative Program Monitoring From the outset, program operations of the HS sites were monitored by the NPO, which took advantage of interactions between the sites and BU training and technical assistance team and, when appropriate given data confidentiality issues, the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) evaluation team. Monitoring by the NPO was both formal and informal. The collection of information by the BU and JHU teams was both formal and incidental to their contacts with sites as part of their training and evaluation responsibilities. These various sources of monitoring information are described below. 3.7.A. Site Visits The primary source of monitoring information came from site visits developed, scheduled, led, and summarized by the NPO with participation by a representative from the BU team, CWF, and sometimes by members of the National Advisory Committee. There were two site visits held with each HS operating site. The first, referred to as the Monitoring Site Visit, was typically conducted at each HS site between six and nine months after start-up of operations. The second site visit, referred to as the Sustainability Site Visit, typically took place at each site at approximately 18 months after start-up. 3.7.A.1. First Site Visit (Monitoring Site Visit) The purpose of the Monitoring Site Visit was to determine the extent to which HS was being implemented; to receive information on the usefulness of the HS training and materials; to assess the impact of HS on pediatric practice; to obtain information on the use of the HS Information and Communication System; to confirm and update data on enrollment; to discuss budget issues, including adequacy of the current budget and 3-11

12 funding base for the post-evaluation period; and to discuss formation of a local advisory committee. After each site visit, the National Program Director prepared an overview report. After review by the other site visitors, a final report was prepared. Each site visitor completed an Assessment of Quality of Implementation at Sites form. The Program Director prepared a formal letter to site personnel summarizing the views of the site visitors with regard to the general performance of the site and the actions to be taken by the site, BU, JHU, and/or the NPO. 3.7.A.2. Second Site Visit (Sustainability Site Visit) The general format for the second site visit was quite similar to that of the Monitoring Site Visit except for one major change: the site was actively involved in the development of the agenda. A letter was sent to the site several months prior to the scheduled site visit, initiating a discussion of the site visit planning process and requesting that the site complete a Self-Reporting Form. The Self-Reporting Form was submitted to the NPO and circulated to the site visitors prior to the visit. Based on knowledge of the site and information in the Self-Reporting Form, a final agenda was developed for the site visit. The general format for the visit included: a relatively brief review of program implementation; discussion of clinical issues; the extension program if the site had one; 3.3 and sustainability. The discussion of sustainability was intended to take up much of the site visit. The format of the site rating, site visit report, and feedback to site and funder personnel were essentially identical to the formats used for the monitoring site visit. 3.7.B. Healthy Steps Monitoring Checklist The NPO combined information from the site visits, BU technical assistance telephone call summaries (see below), and all other contacts with sites to develop a Healthy Steps Monitoring Checklist. This checklist was modified from time to time and used to inform The Commonwealth Fund about HS site operations. 3.3 Healthy Steps permitted sites that wished to do so to extend program services to newborns and their families during the period of the evaluation. These families, referred to as extension families, did not take part in the evaluation. 3-12

13 3.7.C. Formal Telephone Calls with Sites During the period when the monitoring checklist was being completed, formal and informal telephone calls were held with sites to collect relevant information. In addition, from time to time the Program Director or another NPO staff member would call sites to talk about a particular subject and obtain information. Finally, during the summer of 2001, the NPO began making regular calls to all HS sites (both original and new) using a standardized form. 3.7.D. Visits to Sites In addition to the scheduled site visits described above, from time to time the Program Director would make a visit to a site to deal with a particular issue that may have arisen such as the sale of a medical practice or personnel problems within a site, or to make a presentation at a site Local Advisory Committee meeting. 3.7.E. Summaries of Technical Assistance Calls BU facilitated regular technical assistance telephone calls with groups of sites. A member of the NPO staff typically listened in on these calls, prepared a summary of the content of the calls, and circulated them to the National Program and Evaluation Team Summary Integral to the HS program were the training, materials, support and monitoring that sites received from BU and/or the NPO throughout the project. Monitoring information provided the NPO with an ability to combine information from multiple viewpoints and multiple parties over time. The provision of monitoring, training, materials and support facilitated implementation, problem solving, and adherence to the HS protocols. 3-13