Welcome to the Well Visit Planner Frequently Asked Questions for Families

Yes. Both tools can be used on a smartphone or similar device.

The WVP is currently in English and Spanish.

Yes. CAHMI uses the highest data security standards. See the easy to read Use Agreement & Privacy Notice for more information. You do not have to answer any questions you are not comfortable answering. We ask for your child’s name and date of birth in order to make sure you complete the right age-specific version of the WVP and to put a name on your personalized Well Visit Guide. This information is encrypted and stored at the highest level of security.

Families can complete the Well Visit Planner on mobile devices or use devices belonging to anyone they trust who can help them. CAHMI also has one-page Shared Encounter Forms that can also be used when the internet is not available.

Yes. Community health workers, early care and education, home visiting, child welfare or other child serving professionals can get a customized Well Visit Planner account, help families use it and discuss findings to support children and families. Learn more.

Yes. Currently, the Well Visit Planner is available for children up to age six. Expansion to older ages and prenatal care is underway. Families can get a Family Account to keep track of well visits for all their children.

Providers or anyone who signs up to get a customized WVP account will automatically receive the personalized Well Visit Guide and a one-page Clinical Summary in the data dashboard as long as families agree to share it. If families want, they (or someone they trust) can send their guide to their child’s provider using a Patient Portal (like “My Chart”) or using other private/secure methods.

• Families like sharing what is going well and saving time filling out forms during visits
• Families like getting information and resources tailored to their priorities and needs
• Families like keeping Well Visit Guides to track their child’s development over time
• Other family members can use the Well Visit Planner and they can compare responses
• Families like making sure they did not miss important screens and got the best care possible.

A well-child visit or a well visit is a check-up in which you and your child’s provider review your child’s growth since the last visit, discuss your child’s development, ways to help your child grow up healthy, and your needs and concerns as a parent. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends 15 well visits in the first 6 years. Because babies grow and change so fast, well visits are much more frequent in a child’s first year.

The WVP can be completed by the child’s parents or guardians who know the child well and have responsibility for the child’s care. Several family members can complete the Well Visit Planner and compare the personalized Well Visit Guide generated. This helps families learn more about the child and views of other important people in the child’s life.

The goal of the WVP is to enhance your ability to talk with your child’s provider. The WVP highlights topics that you wish to discuss and helps you identify your priorities for your upcoming well visit. The WVP makes it easier to complete screens and get results back right away. This will help you have conversations with your child’s provider by providing you with information that is tailored to your child and your priorities. It also helps families and providers organize the limited time available for these visits.

You will complete three steps on the WVP online tool:

• Step 1: Reflect and answer questions on topics about your child and family that will help your child's provider understand more about your child and family’s health, your child’s growth and development, and about your concerns, needs and priorities.
  
• Step 2: Learn about all key topics recommended for discussion with your child’s health provider. Pick up to five top priorities using the age-specific list of topics. You can access and download educational information and resources for all topics and be sure that those that are most important will be addressed during well visits.
  
• Step 3: Receive a personalized Well Visit Guide that you can save, print or email to your child’s provider. You can also use it at your child's well visit to help guide the conversation and ensure you get your most important questions answered. If your child’s provider has a customized WVP account, your Well Visit Guide will be shared with them automatically.

The tool typically takes about 10 minutes to complete. You can take as long as you like! The first time you use the WVP might take you longer as you become familiar with this tool. You can also complete the WVP with a trusted person (e.g. another family member, a community health support person) and discuss topics as you go. While this will take more time, it helps you learn together and get more support and information as you complete the WVP.

You can use the WVP anytime use the WVP anytime you want to learn about your child’s development and reflect on your needs and priorities. However, the WVP was created for you to use before each of your child's well visits.

No. The WVP questions change based on the age of your child, and each visit will be different. If you have two or more children, the WVP should be completed for each child. If you have two children who have a well visit on the same day and they are both between the ages of 4 months and 6 years, then please complete the WVP separately for each child. If you have an account with the WVP, you can add all your children under that one account and view all their visit information in one place.

You can create your own family account on the WVP website with an email address and a chosen password. You can login to your account where you have a dashboard as a single location for all your children’s Well Visit Guides and educational materials. You can use your dashboard to add your other eligible children, go back to complete the WVP (within one week of starting it) and review previous Well Visit Guides and educational materials. You can also use the WVP as a guest without an account.

The WVP generates a downloadable and printable personalized Well Visit Guide. You can save this to your mobile phone or print it to bring to your child’s well visit. You can also email it to your child’s provider to discuss your needs, concerns and priorities during the well visit or upload it to share with your child’s provider using a patient portal (like MyChart). If you don’t have a printer, you can ask your provider’s office if you can email it to them in advance. Ideally, your child’s provider will have a customized WVP and they will automatically receive your personalized Well Visit Guide and a one page Clinical Summary they can use to prepare for visits and focus your time on your priorities and needs.

If you have a family account with the WVP, the Well Visit Guide will be saved on your dashboard after every time you complete the WVP You can access your guides an time in the future. If you do not have an account, you will need to save or print the Well Visit Guide or send it via email to yourself, your child’s provider, a family member or anyone else that you choose to send it to. Unfortunately, unless you have a family account we will not have the information needed to recreate your Well Visit Guide. So, be sure to save or print it or get a family account!

All children need well visits and the Well Visit Planner was developed in partnership with Family Voices—the largest coalition of families of children with special health care needs in the US. If your child has developmental delays, you may find it useful to complete the age-specific version of the WVP aligned with your child’s developmental age. You can also use the CAHMI’s CARE_PATH for Kids , which was created with and for families of children and youth with special health care needs to engage, plan, and improve care planning and outcomes in partnership with your child’s specialists and care teams. You can learn more about it on www.carepathforkids.org.

The WVP is mobile optimized and works well on a smartphone. In research so far, families have not recommended that we create a WVP APP. However, this is under consideration for future development.