Bureau of Maternal & Child Health
Division of Community Health and Prevention
Illinois Department of Human Services

Program Description

Target

Any infant eligible for the Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes Reporting Systems (APORS) and referred to a Local Health Department or other designated local health agency. High Risk Infant Follow-up serves infants who have any of the following conditions: a serious congenital infection; an endocrine, metabolic or immune disorder; a blood disorder; birth weight less than 1,501 grams; a positive urine toxicology for any drug or signs of drug toxicity or withdrawal; discharge from a neonatal intensive care unit; a congenital anomaly or other conditions, such as intrauterine growth retardation.

Purpose

The purpose of this program is to track and refer children who require special services to correct or prevent health problems and handicapping conditions.

Delivery Method

Services are delivered to all high risk infants that meet the APORS criteria by a case manager who is a registered nurse . Infants are followed until 24 months of age unless a complete assessment and the professional judgment of the nurse case manager indicate that services are no longer needed.

Operations

This is a statewide program at 116 family case management agencies statewide. This program is a component of Family Case Management and relates to many other programs. The referral is initiated at a hospital, the Division of Epidemiology at IDPH is the reporting entity and public health nurses provide follow-up services. There is a direct connection between high risk follow-up and numerous programs such as WIC, Primary Care, Early Intervention, Perinatal Follow-up and others depending on the needs of the family.

Program Data

High Risk Infant Follow-up Program Data
Performance Indicators SFY04 SFY05 SFY06
Grant Amount (Numbers in 000's)* $0.00 $0.00 $0.00
Number of Grantees 116 116 116
Number Discharged 10948 10692 10499

* No grant amount allocated - HRIF is part of FCM

Program Effectiveness

More than 90% of the women and infants active in either WIC or FCM are also enrolled in the other program; women enrolled in WIC during pregnancy gain an appropriate amount of weight, reducing their risk for delivering a low birthweight infant; infants' access to primary health care is improving.