UVA Children's Hospital: Bridges to Care
The 2007-2008 academic year was a momentous one for the Department of Pediatrics. This Annual Report summarizes the efforts and successes of many individuals, and demonstrates how we are forging "bridges" across our clinical, educational, research, and leadership activities. Growing from recommendations by our consultants (Kurt Salmon Associates, SG2, and Stanley Beaman & Sears), a group of three multidisciplinary leadership teams was convened to chart the future course of the UVA Children's Hospital well into the 21st century.
The need for change was mandated by dramatic changes in the health care of children, with a shift from inpatient acute care to the management of children with chronic complex disorders requiring an interconnected approach.
Over the past decade, we have grown to well over 100 faculty physicians to children, comprising the full spectrum of medical, surgical, and laboratory specialties, with many more health care professionals and staff caring for children in virtually all clinical departments in the School of Medicine.
The Department of Pediatrics forms the core of these programs, providing a continuum from perinatology through pediatrics to adult specialty care:
- Over 70 faculty in 14 divisions bridge care from the fetus (such as the Fetal Heart Program) through care of the neonate in our newborn nursery and NICU.
- Infants and children are managed in our PICU and acute care wards (7 Central and 7 West).
- Those with chronic disorders are transitioned to adult programs for lifelong follow-up.
- Our UVA Kluge Children's Rehabilitation Center (KCRC) provides multidisciplinary rehabilitation for children already stabilized in the PICU.
- For children for whom this is the best option, we have established a pediatric palliative care program involving the entire family as well as the patient.
- All of these programs are based on our firm belief in child advocacy and family-centered care.