Walter and Shawna Davis of Columbia, S.C., were concerned when their twin girls Jazaria and Jazoria were born prematurely. But their concern turned to alarm when the two-week-old babies developed gangrene in their intestines, requiring a complicated series of surgeries and extensive medical treatment. “I was a first-time mother, and just knowing how to take care of babies was a problem,” says Shawna Davis. “We knew nothing.” Helping families like the Davises is one of the goals of Palmetto Health Alliance’s Medically Fragile Children’s Program. Established by Palmetto Health in 1996 as a collaboration with the state Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Social Services, the program is intended to help families of children with complicated medical conditions by providing comprehensive and coordinated delivery of pediatric medical care and therapy, nutritional services,medications and medical supplies, medical equipment, and extensive parent education and respite care. This approach has been proven to show positive clinical and functional outcomes for medically complex children, and a significant cost savings for Medicaid patients. The program has won a national award and has been cited in the Governor’s Healthcare Taskforce as an innovative medical home program. It has also been replicated in Easley, S.C., and there are plans for expanding it into another community in 2005. But the most dramatic results of the program are visible in the effects it has on the lives of young patients and their families. Today, the Davis twins are active and energetic three-year-olds of average size and weight. “They’re perfect; great,” says Davis. “Better than what I, their father, or this program ever expected. “But without this program I can’t tell you where we would be, medically, financially, or emotionally.” | 
