Services and Resources for Providers
Kaiser Permanente Services
Kaiser Permanente has three ASD centers in Northern California in San Jose, Rancho Cordova and San Francisco.
Kaiser Permanente San Jose ASD Center:
In addition to screening, assessment, and clinical consultation, the Kaiser Permanente San Jose ASD Center is collaborating on large-scale, federally funded research projects with Principal Investigator, Lisa A. Croen, PhD from the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research (DOR) Autism Research Program. Dr. Croen is a perinatal epidemiologist who has been involved in autism research for more than 10 years.
To learn more about the ASD Health Education Program go to the Kaiser Permanente ASD Center reference sheet.
What services does the ASD Center provide?
The Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Center provides in-depth developmental screening and assessment, clinical consultation, by a multidisciplinary team representing the following disciplines: child and adolescent psychiatry, clinical psychology, pediatrics, behavioral and developmental pediatrics, pediatric neurology, genetics and other sub-specialists. Local child and adolescent psychiatry departments offer case management and support for children with an ASD diagnosis.
How do I refer patients to the ASD Center?
Any Kaiser provider in the Northern California Region may refer a child to the ASD centers. The ASD centers accept referrals via eConsult after the child has been screened using the M-CHAT or other best practices developmental tool and is determined to meet ASD risk referral criteria. The ASD centers will also accept referrals when there is a parent or a Kaiser provider concern about the child's developmental progress. Training on the use of the screening tools and the referral process has been presented to all providers' groups in the Northern California Region.
How will KP clinicians in the region care for the ASD patient population that cannot travel to one of the three ASD Centers?
The Kaiser Permanente ASD Evaluation Centers collaborate and provide clinical consultation to the Developmental Pediatrics and Child Psychiatry providers throughout Northern California. For families that cannot travel to one of the three ASD Centers, they can be referred to their local KP Developmental Pediatrics or Child Psychiatry Departments.
Other Resources
- Autism Research Program materials:
- Fact Sheet about Autism Recurrence - Questions and Answers regarding the chance that a younger brother or sister of a child with ASD will also have ASD. Developed by the EARLI Network; includes references.
- Fact Sheet about Thimerosal in Vaccines and ASD - Summary of recently published article in Pediatrics about a study in which Kaiser was one of three large managed care organizations providing the strongest evidence to date that immunizations with thimerosal-containing vaccines during pregnancy or in the first two years of life does not increase a child's risk of developing autism.
- Autism Research Program Flyer - A 2-sided bilingual flyer (English & Spanish) parents can post in libraries, schools, and community agencies to help us raise awareness of the opportunity for parents to participate in ground-breaking autism research.
- Health Care Provider Resource Kit - Centers for Disease Control (CDC) offers excellent information for providers.
- Developmental Milestones Checklist - CDC guide on developmental stages.