March 2020

The Portal Periodical brings you updates on changes and additions to Portal, alerts you to relevant news & information, and solicits feedback to help us improve the Portal. Want to get in touch? Please provide Feedback.

On March 11, 2020 the World Health Organization characterized COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) as a global pandemic. The situation in the United States is evolving rapidly with changes to school schedules, business operations, and other services across multiple states, including all Medical Home Portal partner states.

We've posted a COVID-19 information page on the Portal with links to accurate, credible resources for information about the global and national situation, as well as local information in partner regions. If you are looking for information about how to find other good online information, revisit our Finding Quality Information page.

Our Services Directory offers information about a variety of potential service providers, including respite care, emergency food and financial assistance, and housing information. Please contact individual providers to confirm their hours and programs before visiting as many may have adjusted operations at this time. Please stay safe and healthy.

Did you know that you can build and share custom lists of Portal Service Providers for your family or patients? All you need is to set up a free, public Portal account with your email and Sign-in. We've recently made updates and will continue to make more.

We continue to work on improving Portal search results. Our goal is to make sure you can find all the information you need on the Portal as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Our newest improvements are to Services results in the Search Results screen. These results are always based on your region. You can now also limit these results to show just Providers or Categories.

Dr. Chuck Norlin is the founding director of the Medical Home Portal. He practiced general pediatrics in Salt Lake City for 10 years before joining the University faculty in 1990 and he served as Chief of the Division of General Pediatrics from 1993-2010. Currently, he is the principal investigator for the Pediatric Patient Summary-Medical Home Portal project, funded by CMS through the Utah Medicaid Program.

During these unusual times, Dr. Norlin is (slowly) learning how to successfully work from home. This involves staying away from the refrigerator and the 1,500 piece jigsaw puzzle that has taken over the dining room table.