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2007 - In the News

November 10, 2007

Child Health Clinic Gives Families a Medical Home

By Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain News
November 10, 2007

The Child Health Clinic's littlest patients begin their tour through the health care system in a sunny waiting room splashed with citrus colors and anchored by comfy chairs.

Red-headed Jeremy Snyder, 7 weeks old and dressed in playful tennis shoes, will be monitored for breathing problems that developed at birth.

Zoee Schlegel, 2, will be examined to see if the clinic's menu suggestions - beans and peanut butter - have given her a hoped-for weight gain.

And, after spending just one day on planet Earth, Grace Adgolign is brought in by her beaming parents for her first-ever checkup.

The Child Health Clinic has a straightforward goal: "to become the medical home for the family that doesn't have a medical home," said Mary Navin, the clinic's director. Much like a primary-care physician, the clinic identifies with the family, understands the patient's health needs and coordinates care, Navin said.

Most of the kids - 65 percent - are covered by Medicaid. About 20 percent are covered under a state health program. Ten percent are uninsured, Navin said. Five percent have private insurance.

Susan Howard, who receives Medicaid benefits, falls among the majority of cases. But she felt very much alone in September as she listened for her baby's first cry.

Nothing.

A medical team bent over her just-born son, named Jeremy Snyder, after his father. "One of them hit his feet," Howard recalled. "Still no noise. More doctors kept coming in."

Finally, "he started to cry, and then I started to cry," Howard said. Jeremy's first, hesitant moments of life led to wheezing and congestion, which the clinic is monitoring every few weeks.

The clinic's concern is a relief to the 20-year-old single mother, who felt the extent of her new responsibilities the moment Jeremy was placed in her arms.

"The first thing he did is grab my finger," she said. "I thought to myself, 'Wow, I'm a mom.' "

The clinic offers a long list of services, including newborn and wellness care, sick care and routine physicals. Behavioral issues and common childhood complaints also are covered.

Many families, Navin said, "probably wouldn't get the help if the clinic wasn't there."

Zoee Schlegel has been chronically underweight, said grandmother Sandra. On a recent day, she was filling in for Zoee's mother, Tanya, who was working at her warehouse job. The family qualifies for Medicaid.

Zoee was being weighed to see if the clinic's diet advice was helping her gain weight.

It was. "She'd doing good. She's on the scale now," said a relieved Sandra Schlegel, adding that she thinks Zoee's new love for ravioli and pizza may have helped, too.

If anyone appreciates the clinic's desire to be "the family's medical home," it's Sileshi and Firay Adgolign.

Just 24 hours after their daughter, Grace, was born at University Hospital, the Adgoligns took their serene, snoozing newborn to the clinic for her first routine checkup.

Sileshi is a mechanic with insurance through work. But the family remains loyal to the clinic, which is affiliated with Children's Hospital.

In September, the hospital and the clinic moved from Denver to the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, which is on the site of the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Center.

Even when the clinic was downtown, the Adgoligns brought their older kids, Samuel, 3 and Emanuel, 2, for their checkups.
This was the first time they had seen the clinic in its new location.

"Wow. It's beautiful," Sileshi Adgolign said, taking in the huge, kid-friendly waiting room. "Very big. Kids can play here. Better than downtown."

For Grace's loving Ethiopian family, the clinic visit capped a joyous "coming home" celebration to ensure she got a safe and healthy start to life.

The festivities began with a party thrown for family and friends to "praise the Lord" for Grace's arrival and to feast on the spicy dishes of their homeland, Sileshi said.

And what did Grace eat?

"Some Ethiopian (baby) food," he said, adding, with a laugh. "It's kind of hard to translate."