Complex medically fragile children can get home sooner saving thousands in medical care and foster care costs.

Dream House
Providing a Solution to State Budget Cuts

Snellville, Ga. (February 15, 2011) – Dream House for Medically Fragile Children, Inc. announced today the flagship Family for Keeps® Transition Care Home in Lilburn is now accepting referrals to provide care for Georgia’s children who are tracheostomy and ventilator dependent. This marks the first pediatric step-down facility in Georgia with a patent-pending transition care program that provides 24-hour nursing and skills training to prepare each child and family for transition to their own home. Referring agency case managers (hospital, insurance and DFCS) may call the Referral Line (678) 485-4810 or review the online Referral and Admission Guidelines.

“We offer a win-win proposition for these children, their families, healthcare institutions, insurance companies and Georgia’s taxpayers,” said Laura Moore, Dream House Founder and CEO. “For less than half the cost of acute care settings, we can effectively and efficiently prepare the child, family and home environment, discharge the child sooner, reduce hospital readmissions, and keep more families together.” 

“I have watched these patients linger in a hospital setting sometimes as long as two to three years because they had no place to go,” commented Terri Lawrence, Dream House Family for Keeps®  Bridging the Gap Program Manager. Ms. Lawrence, a pediatric respiratory therapist and former hospital case manager, has worked with pediatric tracheostomy and ventilator dependent patients and families for many years. “It is exciting (for others) to know that Dream House now offers the expertise to provide care for these patients in a home environment while also preparing their families to take care of them in their own homes. There is no other place in the state of Georgia that can provide this kind of service.”

The Dream House Family for Keeps® Transition Care Home is licensed as the first and only Children’s Transition Care Center (CTCC) in the nation. The Dream House organization operates this wraparound, hospital-to-home program as an approved Medicaid provider under Georgia Healthy Families and GAPP, and is also contracted to serve private insurance patients covered by Aetna. Dream House continues provider contract negotiations with other insurance companies, as well.

A 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization devoted to serving children with chronic, complex health issues, Dream House relies primarily on private funding to operate its patent-pending Transition Model of Care that empowers families and communities to care for their medically fragile children at home. For more information, contact us, visit http://www.dreamhouseforkids.org, or call 770-717-7410.