Caring for Patients With Neurodevelopmental Needs: A Q&A With Dr. Dan Doherty

During the past five years, Seattle Children’s Neurodevelopmental Program has made significant improvements and transformed from limited patient access to providing some of the shortest wait times in the country for neurodevelopmental services. The program provides care for a wide range of children and young adults who have complex needs because of conditions with their nervous system, such as patients with autism, spina bifida, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and other challenges.

We sat down with Dr. Dan Doherty, Neurodevelopmental Division Head, to discuss what makes Seattle Children’s unique in its Neurodevelopmental services, how it has significantly improved patient access, and how community providers can utilize its services to care for patients with neurodevelopmental needs.

How is Seattle Children’s distinct from other providers in the region?

Seattle Children’s Neurodevelopmental Program is unique due to its focus on caring for children with complex neurodevelopmental conditions (often beyond just one issue) including intellectual disability, spina bifida, cerebral palsy, brain malformations and complex autism. Our large group of board-certified developmental-behavioral pediatricians and advanced practice providers collaborate with Seattle Children’s therapists, psychologists, nurses, nutritionists, genetic counselors and comprehensive team of pediatric subspecialists to diagnose and treat each patient’s unique medical, developmental and behavioral needs.

In addition, our patients benefit from the extensive research efforts at Seattle Children’s and the University of Washington to improve care and quality of life for people with disabilities.

Our large patient volumes – over 10,000 visits per year – ensure we have extensive experience with both common and rare clinical situations so we can provide the highest-quality care.

Finally, we have markedly grown our programs and increased clinical efficiency over the past five years, resulting in significantly reduced wait times compared to the past. Across the country, children typically have to wait at least six months or even a year for an initial evaluation, but we’re able to see most patients within a couple of months and can prioritize young patients within a few weeks.

Seattle Children’s patient access availability is significantly better than most other clinics – how did the team accomplish this?

Seattle Children’s Neurodevelopmental Program had a patient access challenge several years ago, and we’ve taken steps to make improvements because we know how important it is to provide timely care to patients when they need it – not nine months from now.

The program focused on two areas in the transformation work. First, we strengthened staffing, expanding from four to 10 physician specialists, plus we have eight advanced practice providers who help greatly expand the number of patients who can be seen each day. And second, we’ve taken steps to operate more efficiently in workflows and simplify referral processes, giving team members more time to focus on what matters most: caring for patients.

To make it easier to find care close to home, Seattle Children’s provides neurodevelopmental services at sites across Washington including Bellevue, Everett, Federal Way, Olympia and Yakima.

There’s still more work to be done, but Seattle Children’s has made great progress in improving patient access in the past few years.

What’s on the horizon as the team considers new services to provide for patients?

Seattle Children’s understands that babies in the NICU and other high-risk infants need close developmental monitoring after they are discharged to ensure they get the care they deserve in a timely manner. We’re in the process of expanding access to high-quality developmental monitoring over the next few years, so we can partner with families and primary care providers to help each child reach their full potential.

How can community providers learn more about Seattle Children’s services and make referrals?

For more information, visit the Neurodevelopmental Program webpage and Refer a Patient page for details on the services available and how to make referrals. For urgent clinical questions, call the Provider-to-Provider line at 206-987-7777. For non-urgent clinical questions, please consider submitting an eConsult.