Children's, Kadlec Announce Partnership
October 18, 2006
Kadlec Medical Center in Richland, Wash. and Seattle Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center today announced the formation of a new partnership focused on infant and pediatric inpatient care. The agreement will initially focus on Kadlec’s pediatric hospitalist program and ultimately incorporate other components of pediatric specialty services for infants and children needing hospital services.
Earlier this year, Kadlec started a pediatric hospitalist program, which includes three full-time hospital based pediatricians solely focused on caring for hospitalized pediatric patients and well newborns. These physicians practice only in the hospital and do not have separate office practices within the community.
Collaborating with Children’s assures that Kadlec nurses, doctors and other health care professionals have the ability to easily consult with their colleagues in Seattle. Sharing protocols and educational opportunities assures the finest, up-to-date pediatric practices are in place throughout Kadlec from the emergency department, to the nursery, to the dedicated pediatric unit, and across all of the clinical therapies.
“This is the next step Kadlec has taken to bring this community more specialized pediatric care”, said Rand Wortman, Kadlec President and Chief Executive Officer. “We already are the region’s referral hospital for neonatal intensive care. This partnership with Children’s will help take us to the next level all across our pediatric services.”
“We’re pleased to be partnering with Kadlec”, said Charles Cowan, MD, Clinical Director, Care Coordination Services, of Children’s Hospital. “The word regional is part of our name, part of our mission of service, and while we’ve already been a referral center for Kadlec, collaborating with them in this way will further enhance this relationship.”
Such enhancements between Kadlec and Children’s include:
- Assisting Kadlec in developing clinical protocols, transport guidelines and quality initiatives.
- Establish a Pediatric Quality Care committee to implement quality assurance and utilization review.
- Assist with teaching and training of Kadlec pediatric hospitalists, nurses and other clinical staff.
- Develop regular clinical and administrative teleconferences among Children’s affiliated hospitalist programs. Children’s currently has pediatric hospitalist programs at Providence Everett Medical Center and Evergreen Healthcare in Kirkland.
- Develop integration and standardization between Children’s affiliated hospitalist programs within the northwest.
About Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center
Consistently ranked as one of the best children's hospitals in the country by U.S. News & World Report, Children's serves as the pediatric referral center for Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho. Children's has been delivering superior patient care for 100 years, including advancing new discoveries and treatments in pediatric research, and serving as a primary teaching, clinical and research site for the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine. For more information about Children's, visit www.seattlechildrens.org.
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Jennifer Seymour, Director, Public Relations
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E-mail: jennifer.seymour@seattlechildrens.org