Funded Projects

Training Initiative: Provider Referrals to WIC

Project Year

2024

City & State

Washington, District of Columbia

Program Name

CATCH Implementation

Topic

Nutrition

Program Description

Problem: Though the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children is an effective public health nutrition program, there has been a national wide downtrend in WIC enrollment and participation amongst eligible families (1). The WIC coverage rate nationally, which is the percentage of individuals who have WIC benefits of those who are eligible, is 50.2%.  Though this varies by state, in D.C., the coverage rate is still sub-optimal at 57.9%. Additionally, enrollment in WIC falls as the child ages 1-4 years.     Primary Setting: The primary setting for this intervention would be pediatric clinics in D.C.  Pediatric providers offer a unique opportunity and touch-point to reach eligible families.   This intervention would train pediatric providers on a referral mechanism to D.C. WIC, that allows for tracking of referred patients, communication on shared patients, and uploading of medical prescription forms.    Number of Children Affected: The population of children affected would be those who are eligible for WIC benefits in D.C. According to the most recently released information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the number of children who are eligible for WIC benefits in D.C. and would be the immediate number of children to be affected by this intervention would be 24, 097.    Project Goal: The goal of this project would be to promote D.C. WIC referrals on the FindHelp platform from health care providers to DC WIC   Proposed Intervention: The intervention would be to create an on-line toolkit that educated on WIC resources and on how to refer to D.C. WIC using the FindHelp referral platform, track referrals, and communicate through the platform on shared patients.  This toolkit would be created after doing a needs assessment with pediatric providers in varying healthcare settings in D.C. and with D.C. WIC staff on information they felt would be most needed for this on-line tool kit.  Once developed, the tool kit will be posted on the DC AAP website, DC WIC website and disseminated on social media. In addition, at least two capstone education sessions would be held to provide in-person training on the tool-kit and allow for questions and feedback.    Anticipated Outcomes: WIC Referral Toolkit will be completed. The toolkit will be posted on the DC AAP website and DC WIC website.  At least two live education sessions that allowed for questions and answers would be held by D.C. AAP regarding the available toolkit. 

Project Goal

1.) Promote WIC referrals on the FindHelp platform from health care providers to DC WIC 

Project Objective 1

By 3 months, conduct a needs assessment by interviewing  4 DC pediatric providers in varied health healthcare settings regarding their current process for referrals to DC WIC, and 3 WIC staff regarding information they would like from providers regarding referrals to WIC  

Project Objective 2

Create an online tool-kit that provides information on what is WIC, who is eligible, how to refer using the FindHelp link, and how to track referrals on Find Help, tailored for health care providers by 6 months, and obtaining qualitative input from 2 pediatric providers and 1 WIC staff on the designed toolkit by 7 months of implementation of the project 

Project Objective 3

By 9 months, make the online toolkit available on DC AAP and DC WIC website and hold 2 in-person education sessions on the online toolkit by 11 months 

AAP District

District III

Institutional Name

Medstar Georgetown University Hospital

Contact 1

Karen Ganacias, MD, MPH