Wearing the "Ambassador's" Hat
By Dr. Tony Avellino
Dr. Tony Avellino
I am passionate about Children’s. I trained here and was the hospital’s first pediatric neurosurgery fellow. I came back after working at Johns Hopkins because Children’s is such a great place to work. Now I am serving as chief of pediatric neurosurgery and neurosurgery residency program director. There are so many great doctors and nurses — many who have been here for a long time, and they all love this place.
I want to do what I can to help advance our mission, and right now, part of that is gaining support for our growth. We know from our outreach efforts that community members would most trust a physician who sees patients at Children’s as the best source to provide them with fair and accurate information regarding the hospital’s plans for growth.
Based on that feedback, I have been asked to be an ambassador for Children’s. In this role, I will be sharing key messages about the work we do here, including stories about some of our patients, at various events in the community. The main goal of this outreach program is to educate people about why we need to grow.
At Children’s we believe in providing family- and patient-centered care. In order to successfully deliver this kind of care, we need to keep the best interests of our patients and families in mind with every decision we make as an organization. Our patients and families are why we need to grow. As an ambassador, I hope to help make that clear.
I live in Laurelhurst. I walk to work. Every few days, I get questions from my neighbors about why it’s necessary for us to grow. The simple answer is that we are running out of space. We are at or near capacity much of the time already and the regional population is increasing. Also, chronically ill kids, who account for 80% of the patients in the hospital on any given day, are surviving longer and they need to continue to receive care at a full-service pediatric hospital where they can access a variety of subspecialists.
There are other considerations that will affect our future, too. Since we treat children regardless of their family’s ability to pay, it will be important to continue receiving the government’s support. Obtaining government funding will be more likely for an organization like Children’s because kids receive better care and more cost-effective care at a dedicated pediatric center — but we have to have room for the patients who need us.
Still, there are those with concerns about the impact on the neighborhood. “The traffic will get worse,” they say. “Where will everyone park? And what about all the noise?”
Those are the three issues I hear the most complaints about, and I understand the need to be protective of the community. I am confident that Children’s will continue to investigate creative solutions to those issues. I live here, too, so I really am concerned about those things.
But then I realize how lucky I am, as a parent, to have a top-ranked children’s hospital in my backyard. If my son or daughter falls and breaks a bone at the playground, we are literally minutes away from some of the best care available anywhere.
Children’s does have supporters in the Laurelhurst community. Some of these are parents of kids who have been treated here and appreciate having this hospital as a neighbor. We need more of this kind of support, however, to be successful in getting our growth plans approved.
Children’s is a source of pride for many in our city and certainly, all of us who work here believe in what we do.
Wish me luck as an ambassador...and help me out when you can!