UAB Medicine’s Staging Transition for Every Patient (STEP) program helps young adults age 18 and up with chronic and complex childhood medical conditions move from pediatric to adult health care. The program manages care for some of Alabama’s most vulnerable patients, and recently it increased the number of patients and families it serves and expanded staff and services.
These patients require ongoing care from different types of doctors due to conditions that began in childhood, such as spina bifida, cerebral palsy, neuromuscular disease, and genetic syndromes. When they transition from pediatric to adult health care, it often involves challenges such as new treatments and medications, insurance changes, finding transportation, buying supplies, and other practical issues.
Some adult primary care physicians have little experience in treating chronic childhood diseases, and many health care providers are unfamiliar with the specific resources these patients need as they enter adulthood. The STEP program streamlines and manages their move from pediatric care at Children’s of Alabama hospital to adult care at UAB Medicine.
Growth and expansion
Guided by hospital task forces and leaders and supported by funding increases, the STEP program has seen tremendous growth since its 2020 launch at the Whitaker Clinic of UAB Hospital. Under the leadership of Medical Director Carlie Somerville, M.D., and Program Director Betsy Hopson, Ph.D., STEP has provided care for more than 800 patients to date.
Among other staff expansions during the past five years, the program now includes a registered dietitian, an advanced practice provider, a child life specialist, social workers, and more nursing support. It draws providers from over a dozen departments and divisions within Children’s of Alabama and UAB Medicine. Training for future providers involves hosting medical students and residents from multiple medical specialties each week.
Hopson says the program’s expansion is both a measure of its progress and a vital part of its mission.
“We have known from the beginning that the key to STEP’s success was growth of our care team and partnerships across disciplines,” Hopson said. “By increasing our number of providers, having a child life specialist join the team, adding social workers, and with our expansion to inpatient care, we are fulfilling our mission.”
Inpatient service
One especially significant advance is STEP’s inpatient consult service, which launched in October 2025. It’s an important new service, given that STEP patients have a high risk for longer hospital stays, complications during those stays, and being readmitted.
Dr. Somerville says this new inpatient model is designed to support patients and their families, as well as their care teams.
“We have set the model of a program that can accommodate the needs of this patient population,” Dr. Somerville said. “Our outpatient model is designed to keep patients out of the hospital. As inpatients – especially those in acute crisis – that’s the time they need us the most. So our inpatient model is designed to make patient care go as smoothly as possible. We are more equipped than ever to surround our patients with all the elements of support they will need across the inpatient and outpatient settings at UAB.”
Learn more about STEP, the first formal program of its kind in Alabama and the surrounding region.