October 2008

Improving Health Outcomes for Children in Foster Care: The Role of Electronic Record Systems

The researchers sought to show how information and communications technology tools could benefit children in foster care. They noted that each year about 800,000 children are in foster care. Many programs and services are available to meet their health care needs, but children in foster care tend to have worse health, higher average health costs, and less access to needed health services than children who are not in foster care. The researchers reviewed ERS implementations for children in foster care in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Kansas; Tennessee; Texas; Sacramento, California; and Arizona. The evaluation considered the population of foster children served in each state's implementation, the funding source, access rights, sources of information, information included in the ERS, privacy protections, and the possibility of alerts.