How The Progressive Evaluation and Referral Center Helped Jacob
For most parents, there’s a natural handoff when your kids age out of pediatric care. You nudge them to find an adult primary care provider and make an appointment, but you don’t do it for them.
However, for one Carnegie mom and for many other families caring for adults with complex disabilities, it’s not that simple.
Eileen Buchheit cares for her son Jacob, who has complex, lifelong disabilities caused by a brain infection he had as a baby. Once he reached adulthood, she says it became difficult to know where to turn for coordinated medical care.
That changed in 2023 when she found the Division of General Internal Medicine’s Progressive Evaluation and Referral Center (PERC), which is in its 20th year. It’s one of only a small number of clinics nationwide focused on care for people like Jacob, who has cerebral palsy.
Jacob was 27 when Eileen heard about the clinic through Variety, the children’s charity, and was referred by the Complex Care Center at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Kristen Ann Ehrenberger, MD, PhD, director, PERC, became Jacob’s new primary care doctor at PERC at UPMC Montefiore; she oversees his specialty care as well.
“She refers us to any specialist and therapist we need to see,” Eileen says. “The clinic is used to treating complex, medical conditions and they know the specialists we need to see.”
She also likes the quick responsiveness when she asks questions via the MyUPMC app.
“Someone answers us in a few minutes,” Eileen adds.
Compassionate Care for Complex Needs
In 2025, Jacob developed a bacterial infection that turned into septic shock. He had to have multiple surgeries on his back to remove the infection, clean the area, and take out the metal hardware in his back where a staph infection and E. coli had clung.
While Jacob would normally visit PERC every six months, in this latest 13-month-long medical journey, he returned to PERC about 10 times. Finally in August 2026, there was no sign of infection.
Eileen is thankful Dr. Ehrenberger oversees Jacob’s prescriptions too.
“He has high blood pressure and a high heart rate now and she’s determining what medications he should be on,” she says. “He received some while he was in the hospital. She’s monitoring his conditions, making adjustments, and can refer us to a specialist if needed.”
Eileen is dedicated to getting the word out to other parents about PERC. She’s since referred two of Jacob’s friends to the clinic, and last year, they participated in a panel at UPMC where they spoke about their experience at the clinic with parents of prospective patients.
“As a resource for knowledge, PERC is wonderful,” she says. “With everything that happened in the last 13 months, I have no idea where we’d be without them. Dr. Ehrenberger called in all of Jacob’s needed blood work and antibiotics. I’m really grateful that we found them and that we have these resources.”
Jacob, now 30, is active in adaptive sports like sled hockey and Miracle League baseball. During the pandemic, he used his iPad to tell jokes several times a week, sharing them online to help cheer people up and make them feel less alone. It's a glimpse, Eileen says, of who he is beyond his medical needs.
They are looking forward to attending “PERC Night Out” at an upcoming University of Pittsburgh basketball game to celebrate the clinic’s anniversary.
Jacob’s treatment and results may not be representative of other cases.
PERC patients are typically referred by another provider, but caregivers or patients may also initiate the process if they meet the admission criteria on our website. Call 412-692-4888 and ask for “a PERC intake.”
