Providing better access to health care: a pediatric nurse practitioner WIC-based clinic for one-stop health care.

The University of Texas Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Well Child Clinic was established in January 1992 to provide high-quality "user-friendly" health care to children in Houston, Texas. As the name implies, the traditional services of the WIC nutritional program are coupled with primary care to offer more comprehensive and greater access to care. The services are provided by pediatric nurse practitioners and focus on health maintenance, with an emphasis on anticipatory guidance and immunizations. Acute care and management of chronic illness are also provided. The clinic serves as a teaching site for pediatric nurse practitioner and medical students. This article addresses the rationale for and planning of a WIC-based clinic and the implementation of the plan and addresses issues concerning reproducibility in other settings.

Intestinal parasitosis in an urban pediatric clinic population.

Three hundred twenty-one pediatric patients were prospectively screened for intestinal parasites. Of the stool specimens, 49.5% were positive for ova or parasites. Positive stool specimens were significantly correlated with recent travel to Mexico by the patient or a household member. The incidence rate for Giardia lamblia was 20%, and it was 5% for both Ascaris and Trichuris. Hymenolepis nana was the fourth most common parasite, with a rate of 4%. No identifiable clinical, laboratory, or other demographic predictors of parasitic infestation were found. Giardia seems to be rapidly increasing in prevalence and may be the most frequently isolated parasite in the southern United States.