Continuity of Care for America's Farmworkers
Author:
This report focuses on services that assure continuity of care to farmworkers living and working in the United States. The report is based on the observations and expertise of the three Stream Coordinators, advisory committees, migrant health clinicians and other service providers. The provision of health care to migrant farmworkers as they move from place to place is one of the most challenging and unique aspects of health service delivery to migrant farmworkers. Assuring continuity of care remains at the forefront of the planning and implementation of all programs and projects that seek to provide quality migrant health care services. No formal plan exists at a national level for providing a continuum of care for farmworkers as they move. Continuity of care activities are usually practiced on a case by case, health center by health center basis. This leaves the 120 independently operating migrant health programs to create their own system without uniform outcomes, processes and data collection and transfer methods, to act as guidepost for coordinating activities. Also missing is infrastructure that links each organization for collecting and transmitting treatment information or a point of contact for farmworker entry and re-entry into the system.
This report focuses on services that assure continuity of care to farmworkers living and working in the United States. The report is based on the observations and expertise of the three Stream Coordinators, advisory committees, migrant health clinicians and other service providers. The provision of health care to migrant farmworkers as they move from place to place is one of the most challenging and unique aspects of health service delivery to migrant farmworkers. Assuring continuity of care remains at the forefront of the planning and implementation of all programs and projects that seek to provide quality migrant health care services. No formal plan exists at a national level for providing a continuum of care for farmworkers as they move. Continuity of care activities are usually practiced on a case by case, health center by health center basis. This leaves the 120 independently operating migrant health programs to create their own system without uniform outcomes, processes and data collection and transfer methods, to act as guidepost for coordinating activities. Also missing is infrastructure that links each organization for collecting and transmitting treatment information or a point of contact for farmworker entry and re-entry into the system.
