Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jan;53(1):275-284.
doi: 10.1007/s10803-022-05425-1. Epub 2022 Jan 12.

Improving Efficiency and Equity in Early Autism Evaluations: The (S)TAAR Model

Meredith I Brinster  1 , Briana H Brukilacchio  2 , Autumn Fikki-Urbanovsky  2 , Jeffrey D Shahidullah  3 , Sheri Ravenscroft  4
Affiliations

Improving Efficiency and Equity in Early Autism Evaluations: The (S)TAAR Model

Meredith I Brinster et al. J Autism Dev Disord. 2023 Jan.

Abstract

This paper describes the (Sin Exclusión) Transdisciplinary Autism Assessment and Resources ([S]TAAR) model and presents early metrics tracking efficiency and equity in access to high-quality comprehensive autism evaluations for young children. Retrospective chart reviews over one year (08/2018-08/2019) with n = 173 children were reviewed. Through care coordination with community providers, the model was developed to meet local needs by increasing throughput of children (< 4 years old) evaluated by a transdisciplinary team. Team-based processes included pre-visit triage, synchronous evaluation procedures, case conferencing, huddles, and care coordination. The model led to increased patient throughput, reductions in waitlist and time to diagnosis, and improved provider satisfaction. Improvements in access to care were equitable across patient race, ethnicity, language, and insurance type.

Keywords: Autism; Autism spectrum disorder; Evaluation; Interprofessional; Team-based.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare they have no conflicts of interest related to this work.

References

    1. Austin J, Manning-Courtney P, Johnson M, Weber R, Johnson H, Murray D, Ratliff-Schaub K, Tadlock AM, Murray M. Improving access to care at autism treatment centers: A systems analysis approach. Pediatrics. 2016;137:S149–S157. doi: 10.1542/peds.2015-2851M. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Baio J, Wiggins L, Christensen DL, Maenner MJ, Daniels J, Warren Z, Kurzius-Spencer M, Zahorodny W, Rosenberg CR, White T, Durkin MS, Imm P, Nikolaou L, Yeargin-Allsopp M, Lee L, Harrington R, Lopez M, Fitzgerald RT, Hewitt A, Dowling NF. Prevalence and characteristics of autism spectrum disorder among children aged 8 years—autism and developmental disabilities monitoring network, 11 sites, United States, 2014. MMWR Surveillance Summaries. 2018;67:1–23. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.ss6706a1. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bayley, N. (2005). Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (3rd ed.). Pearson. Retrieved June 14, 2021 from https://www.pearsonassessments.com/store/usassessments/en/Store/Professi...
    1. Bishop-Fitzpatrick L, Kind AJH. A scoping review of health disparities in autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 2017;47:3380–3391. doi: 10.1007/s10803-017-3251-9. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bridgemohan C, Bauer NS, Nielsen BA, DeBattista A, Ruch-Ross H, Paul L, Roizen N. A workforce survey on developmental-behavioral pediatrics. Pediatrics. 2018;141:e20172164. doi: 10.1542/peds.2017-2164. - DOI - PubMed