Mayagüez pediatric center: what services the law orders

It is the paediatric center Act 55-2017 orders created inside Hospital Materno Infantil San Antonio in Mayagüez to comprehensively serve children with special needs in the western zone. What is useful about this law for a family is the list: the law writes down what the Center must have, and a written list is something you can ask against. What the law does not do is create a right to a service, or set how to apply, and we say so just as plainly.

The law sets no eligibility criteria and no admission procedure. It describes the Center as the body responsible for comprehensively attending to children with special needs in the Island’s western zone, and stops there. The concrete criteria, if any, live in the regulations the law orders the Secretary of Health to adopt, and we did not read those.

Information pending verification.

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: The list of what the Center must have

   It is the most usable part of the law, because it is written down and can be quoted. The Center “shall have” surgical, clinical and rehabilitation areas, and counseling and education on special needs and the aid available for these children and their families; specialist physicians and paediatric surgical specialities “such as paediatricians, developmental specialists, neurologists, neurosurgeons, orthopaedists, gastroenterologists, dentists and other specialities the medical director deems necessary, according to the prevalence of the conditions attended”; audiology, speech-language pathology and visual evaluations and services; rehabilitation and physical and occupational therapies, and nutrition education services; and social, psychological and psychiatric evaluations and services for the children and their families.

2. 2

   Step 2: The line almost nobody knows: transportation and benefits

   It is the last item on that list and it is often the one a family in the west needs most. The Center must have “counseling on benefits and coordination for the transportation of these children and their families.” Counseling on benefits, and transportation coordination: both are in the text.

3. 3

   Step 3: The Board must receive the community’s concerns

   Here is the channel the law does open to citizens. Among the duties the law assigns is “to receive information and concerns from citizens and community interest groups about the population of children with special needs, as well as about the various conditions prevailing, to be studied by the Board in order to make recommendations and bring solutions on the concerns presented.” The Board is chaired by the Secretary of Health and meets at least once every three (3) months, at the place they designate.

4. 4

   Step 4: Who sits on the Board

   Worth knowing if you are going to bring a concern, because it is not only government. The Board is composed of one representative each from the Department of Health; the Pediatric Center of Centro Médico in San Juan; Hospital Materno Infantil San Antonio in Mayagüez; the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Puerto Rico; the Department of the Family; the Developmental Disabilities Institute of the School of Public Health of the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus; the Office of the Ombudsman for Persons with Disabilities; the Support Network for Families of Children with Special Needs (APNI) Fundación ESPIBI; SER de Puerto Rico; and Fondos Unidos de Puerto Rico.

5. 5

   Step 5: How it coordinates with the other paediatric centers

   This explains why the Center is not an island. The law provides it shall provide services “in coordination, and with the collaboration of the Pediatric Centers of the Puerto Rico Department of Health,” and that those services shall be coordinated “so as to avoid duplication of efforts and guarantee the offering of integrated medical services in two geographic areas of the Island.” It also coordinates with the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine and with the Ponce School of Medicine and Health Sciences to serve as a center or residency for students specialising in those areas.

6. 6

   Step 6: Where the funds come from

   The law is specific and the restriction matters. Funds “shall come from the budget of Hospital Materno Infantil San Antonio de Mayagüez, without prejudice to any additional contributions made through special appropriations, fund transfers and contributions or donations” from agencies, public corporations, municipalities and private sector persons. And it adds: “No funds forming part of other Pediatric Centers’ budgets shall be assigned to the Center.” The Hospital is empowered to request federal funds.

7. 7

   Step 7: There is an annual operations report

   It serves oversight. The law orders the Secretary of the Department of Health to submit to the Governor and to the Legislative Assembly, before the Secretariat of both Bodies, “detailed reports on the Center’s operations, within thirty (30) days following the close of each fiscal year.”

The Center is attached to Hospital Materno Infantil San Antonio in Mayagüez, and that is where it physically lives according to the law. Community concerns have their channel in the Interagency Board on Children with Special Needs, chaired by the Secretary of Health. The law publishes no phone, office address or appointment procedure, so there is no application route to give you here: what there is, is the list of services the law orders and the names of those answerable for it. If your matter is the special autism coverage, the autism registry or a special education complaint, those have their own guides here.

• Expecting an enforceable right from this law: it creates the Center and lists its services, but sets no eligibility and no remedy.
• Not asking for the benefits counseling and transportation coordination: the law expressly includes them in the list.
• Believing the services are only for the child: the law includes social, psychological and psychiatric evaluations and services for the children and their families.
• Thinking the Board is agencies only: it also includes APNI Fundación ESPIBI, SER de Puerto Rico, Fondos Unidos and the College of Physicians and Surgeons.
• Assuming the Center is funded from other paediatric centers’ budgets: the law expressly forbids it.
• Looking here for the appointment process: the law publishes none, and this guide does not invent one either.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Salud de Puerto Rico

  Salud

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov