Help your patients ask their most important questions

As a physician or health care professional, your role in providing comprehensive family-centered care makes the monitoring of a child’s physical and psychosocial development possible during the early years.

Recognizing the impact early life experience has on a child’s future health and well-being, the Government of Ontario, an expert panel, and the Ontario College of Family Physicians introduced the Enhanced 18-month Well-Baby Visit. The visit provides a consistent, focused, developmental review and evaluation completed by the primary health care provider in collaboration with parents. This Visit Planner was developed to recognize the integral role of the parent in the success of this visit.

What is the Visit Plan based on?

Designed to complement the Ontario version of the Rourke Baby Record, the Visit Planner is based on the Well Visit Planner® (WVP), a proprietary web tool developed and maintained by the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI). The Visit Planner guides parents through 5 topic areas that experts in child development have identified as key areas of healthy child development: Physical Health, Safety, Parenting & Healthy Habits, Motor & Language Skills, and Social & Emotional Development.

For more information on the CAHMI Well Visit Planner® visit cahmi.org and cycleofengagement.org.

How does the Enhanced 18-Month Well-Baby Visit Planner work?
How will it benefit my practice?

Taking approximately 5-10 minutes to complete, parents select items for discussion for each topic. They have the opportunity to learn more by accessing additional educational content in the ‘Why Is this Important?’ sections.

To help insure that the visit is as productive as possible for both you and the parent, the Planner allows the parent to prioritize the items and add other items that may be of specific concern to them. Additional guidance for parents has been provided in the form of potential questions to ask around the specific items they may have added to their list.

Once completed the parent can save or print the Visit Plan to bring with them to your office.

How can I promote the use of the Visit Planner in my practice?

We encourage you to make your parents aware of the Visit Planner at the 15-Month Visit by providing them with the link to our website. If you use your EMR for secure communications with your patients, encourage completion of the Enhanced 18-Month Well-Baby Visit Planner by creating an auto reminder with the link 2 weeks prior to their scheduled visit.

Is there a print version of the Visit Planner that I can use in my office?

Yes. If a parent or guardian has not completed the Planner prior to the visit, you may provide this version for use within your office setting.

Download

How is my patient’s information protected?

The Visit Planner does not ask for any identifying information from your patient. Their session can be saved to a unique and private URL for their future reference. For more information about our privacy policy, please see our Terms of Use.

How can I learn more about the Enhanced 18-Month Well-Baby Visit?

Visit our website for two free, online, accredited courses to learn more about the Enhanced 18-Month Well-Baby Visit and to access the ndds and Ontario version of the Rourke Baby Record.

Share your thoughts with us!

We welcome your expert feedback to help us improve the Enhanced 18-Month Well-Baby Visit Planner. Please contact us at visitplanner@healthhq.ca with your questions and comments.

About DeLI

The 18-month Well-Baby Visit Planner was developed by the Division of e-Learning Innovation (DeLI), an educational research and development group within the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University.

Our development team brings together expertise in instructional design, problem-based learning, evidence-based medicine, multimedia development, computer-based learning technologies, and research and evaluation to create high quality learning resources and leading edge technologies to support e-learning for both health care professionals (machealth.ca) and the public (healthhq.ca).