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Children's is committed to being the best pediatric subspecialty care partner for community-based primary care providers (PCPs) throughout the region. The hospital recognizes that coordinated, patient- and family-centered care is most effectively delivered when information is readily available to help ensure that the right care is provided at the right place and at the right time.
To improve communications between the teams that provide inpatient care and community-based PCPs, Children's has instituted communication enhancements that ensure the best possible coordination of care, particularly for complex patients being discharged home. The latest enhancement, launched in December 2011, is a new electronic discharge summary process for all inpatients. The summary contains the reason for admission, a brief summary of the hospital course, pertinent laboratory results—including those which are pending—and a medication list. The new document will also have a number of significant improvements for the PCP, including:
- A preliminary "Discharge Summary" sent at the time of the discharge, via the PCP's preferred mode of communication
- A final "Discharge Summary" sent once the attending physician has reviewed and authenticated the document
Input from multiple community-based PCP partners was used to inform the development of this tool. We are confident that it will have a positive impact on our ability to effectively coordinate care of the patients we share.
Mary Ellen Avery, MD, Children's Hospital Boston's former physician-in-chief, passed away in December 2011, at the age of 84. Known as Mel to her friends and colleagues, Dr. Avery's career was defined by a ground-breaking discovery that has saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of infants.
While she was at Harvard School of Public Health, Dr. Avery discovered that respiratory distress syndrome in premature newborns is caused by a lack of surfactant, the foamy coating that helps lungs expand. The finding earned Dr. Avery a National Medal of Science in 1991. The award cited Dr. Avery as one of the founders of neonatal intensive care and "a major advocate of improving access to care of all premature and sick infants."
From 1974 to 1985, she was the first woman to serve as physician-in-chief of Children's. At the same time, she broke new ground as the first woman to chair a major clinical department at Harvard Medical School, when she was named the Thomas Morgan Rotch Professor of Pediatrics. She was elected to the National Academy of Science in 1994 and was the first pediatrician to serve as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Dr. Avery's passing is a great loss to both the Children's family and the global pediatric community.
MyPatients at Boston Children's provider portal is the secure, convenient way to access your patients' information at Children's. Keep track of your patients' inpatient admissions or specialty visits, medications, lab work, radiology and other test results, upcoming appointments, as well as view contact information for attending specialists. The intuitive layout and navigation mean you do not have to learn a new EMR system, and you can log on securely from any computer.
Sign up for MyPatients at Boston Children's provider portal:
childrenshospital.org/mypatients
The Department of Otolaryngology and Communication Enhancement at Children's has launched a new Balance and Vestibular Research Program in Waltham to better treat children with vestibular and balance disorders. Under the guidance of the department Chief, Michael J. Cunningham, MD, FACS, Program Director, Guang Wei Zhou, ScD, CCC-A, and otoneurologist, Richard Lewis, MD, the program is one of the few pediatric-focused clinics in the country. Because balance problems can be rooted in multiple sources, the program will employ a multidisciplinary approach to treating vestibular and balance issues that combines the expertise of specialists in otolaryngology, neurology, audiology and physical therapy. The program's clinical faculty will have access to state-of-the-art medical devices to evaluate and diagnosis potential vestibular and balance issues in children.
More information:
childrenshospital.org/balance
Make a referral: 781-216-2799
In December 2011, Children's was named to The Leapfrog Group's list of top hospitals for commitment to transparency and high quality care. This is the fourth time since 2006 that Children's has made the Leapfrog Group's annual class of top hospitals, which includes 65 hospitals from a field of nearly 1,200.
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