Children’s will open a new Emergency Communications Center on Jan. 22 in an effort to centralize, facilitate and coordinate emergency referrals to the hospital. The center, which will be the first of its kind in a pediatric hospital in New England, will allow physicians to request the Critical Care Transport Team and arrange transfer to the Emergency Department or intensive care units — all with one phone call.

Monica Kleinman, MD, assistant in Anesthesia and Medical Director of the Critical Care Transport Program, says, “The center will provide a unique service and expedite access to Children’s Transport, Emergency and Critical Care Services. It will benefit referring physicians and, ultimately, patients and families.”

The center will be staffed by trained communications specialists working closely with physicians, nurses and administrative staff (including the Coordinator of Patient Placement) to handle emergency referrals for medical, surgical, trauma, neonatal and cardiac patients. The system should remove providers from most of the administrative work involved in coordinating an emergency referral. — M.C.

Transport Team

The center is a component of the Center for the Critically Ill Child. The Children’s Hospital League provided funding for the center’s first year of operations as well as for a new Children’s Hospital transport ambulance, which will hit the road this summer.

Contacts:

Emergency Communications Center
(866) 771-KIDS

Karen Cremin
Ext. 3055

Aimee Lyons
Ext. 6700

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