2. Drive Clinical Growth by Improving Access and Service to Families and Physicians
Strategies
- Decrease wait times for appointments
- Expand our geographic reach
- Improve communication with families and physicians
Initiatives
- Recruit additional physicians to support service and growth
- Invest in innovative clinical technology
- Pursue new partnerships in perinatal and neonatal medicine
- Enhance our outpatient facilities in Bellevue, Washington, and build other satellite outpatient facilities
- Develop better infrastructure to improve responsiveness
Bringing care closer to home
Dr. William Walker
A young boy with viral pneumonia is about to see a Children's pulmonary specialist, while elsewhere a girl with a chronic heart condition is seeing a Children's cardiologist. Both patients receive Children's care, but neither of them is in the Seattle area.
The boy is in Bethel, Alaska, nearly 1,900 miles north of Seattle; the girl is in a clinic in Wenatchee, Washington, about 150 miles east. Thanks to Children's outreach clinics, both patients have access to world-class care in their own communities.
Dr. William Walker, a neurodevelopmental specialist, travels each month to Children's Village, a community clinic in Yakima, to see patients with conditions such as autism, mental retardation, cerebral palsy and spina bifida.
Sometimes families are poor, under great stress and facing language barriers. "In some cases I see children and families who would not otherwise be seen," says Walker. "It would just be too overwhelming to get to Seattle."
Children's outreach clinics program relies on "the strong relationships we have with primary care providers across the state," says Walker. "We make recommendations and count on them to follow up. They do an incredible job."
Dr. Mark Lewin
Children's also links with clinics and rural hospitals through the Children's Telemedicine Program, which uses interactive videoconferencing to provide consultative medical visits with Children's specialists.
From his office on Children's Seattle campus, Dr. Mark Lewin can interpret a cardiac study on a newborn with complex heart disease who was delivered that morning in Kennewick.
"We have been transmitting 'live' cardiac ultrasounds from throughout the state for the past five years," says Lewin.
"When the patient's care provider is concerned about a possible cardiac condition, we can quickly and accurately provide a diagnosis. This technology also allows us to interact directly with the family, and to facilitate appropriate follow-up plans."