9.4.1.17: Documentation of Child Care Health Consultation/Training Visits

Documentation of child care health/early childhood mental health consultation visits should be maintained in the facility’s files. Documentation should include at least the following:

1. Name of child care health/early childhood mental health consultant;
2. Date and time of visit;
3. Recipient(s) of service;
4. Reason for the visit/phone/internet consultation;
5. Type of service provided;
6. Recommendations;
7. Follow-up, if any.

All training or education provided by child care health consultants for early care and education professionals should be documented in a manner that can be used to meet professional development requirements or documentation. Recommendations and improvement plans should be provided to the staff.

RATIONALE

Child care health consultants, including mental health consultants, licensing agents, health departments, and fellow caregivers/teachers should reinforce the importance of appropriate health behavior. Documentation of health consultation by a child care health consultant or other health professional provides a record of the assessed need in a facility, the strategies to make improvements, and the barriers that result from implementing strategies. The documentation can also be useful in evaluating the effectiveness of the services provided (1).

The documentation from the child care health consultant should take the form of a quality improvement plan that includes goals, objectives, timeline, and financial considerations. All encounters should be documented by the child care health consultant. The child care health consultant should use the same standards as would be used to document “patient care” the patient or client in this case is the child care business.

TYPE OF FACILITY

Center, Early Head Start, Head Start, Large Family Child Care Home, Small Family Child Care Home

RELATED STANDARDS

1.6.0.1 Child Care Health Consultants
1.6.0.3 Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultants
1.6.0.4 Early Childhood Education Consultants

REFERENCES

1. Norwood, S. L. 2003. Nursing consultation: A Framework for working with communities. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.