Health Care Transition in Minnesota

Across the country, less than 30% of youth with special health needs (YSHN) received help preparing for this transition. Research indicates that without HCT preparation, YSHN can experience a loss of services and subsequent decline in health. In Minnesota, 17.5% or 226,402 children and youth under 18 have a special health care need compared to the national estimate of 19.5%.

Gillette Children’s, in collaboration with The National Alliance to Advance Adolescent Health and Got Transition®, with funding from the Minnesota Department of Health, Children and Youth with Special Health Needs section, is taking a leadership role in supporting improvements in the transition from pediatric to adult care.

Our work began 2023 with the launch of the Health Care Transition Learning Collaborative (HCT LC). Over 18 months, we brought together a multidisciplinary group of people to develop an understanding of recommended HCT services.

• 2023-2024 HCT LC ECHO Session Recordings 
• 2nd Annual Transition Summit Recording 
• Pediatric to Adult Healthcare Transition Roundtable -June 14, 2022

We learned that clinicians want to support their patients and families with a safe health care transition, but often lack organizational resources and support. Coupled with system-level challenges such as a lack of adult providers for transitioning children and youth with special health needs, and a lack of reimbursement for this time-intensive population, sustainability of health care transition initiatives is limited.

Our work for the next 3.5 years will address these system-level challenges. The first step is a strategic partnership analysis of Minnesota advocacy, health plan, health system and professional organizations to identify opportunities for HCT education, quality improvement, and systems change. Findings from this analysis will inform a series of annual Project ECHO Learning Sessions and an annual Health Care Transition Summit.