Department of Pediatrics Biannual Report 2008-2009

INTRODUCTION FROM THE CHAIR
Bi-Annual Report • 1
I am happy to share with you our department report for 2008 and 2009!
This may have been the most important couple of years for our
department since our first Chair, William Tomlinson Plant, published
a study of childhood seizures in the inaugural edition of Archives of
Pediatrics, in 1884. 2009 was the year that we opened the Upstate
Golisano Children’s Hospital, realizing a decades-long dream of the
community and many of my predecessors. In the short time we have
been open, the hospital has already garnered some national recognition
for its architecture, and some of our patient care innovations have been
the subject of presentations in national meetings.
Although the hospital was only open for the last three months covered
by this report, its impact can be seen in many places. Many of the new
pediatricians and pediatric surgical specialists who have joined us in
the past two years were attracted to Syracuse by the opportunities
afforded by a state of the art facility. Our volumes of patient activity,
both in the outpatient and the inpatient settings, have been increasing
substantially. We have made a number of efforts to streamline our
referral process, including opening new regional subspecialty satellite
clinics, initiating a “one call” system for transfers and appointments
(1-800-464-KIDS), improving the entirety of the family experience
during the visit, and providing timely and complete reports to referring
professionals.
One of our newest initiatives is a joint effort with the American Board
of Pediatrics, which will permit us to offer a project which will help
both referring physicians and our subspecialty consultants evaluate
each other’s roles in the consultation experience, insure the safety of
primary care/subspecialist “hand offs”, and provide ABP Maintenance of
Certification (“MOC”) category 4 credit. As I am writing this letter, we
are finalizing the operational details of this project, and will make these
available on the Golisano Children’s Hospital website shortly.
I hope that you will agree that the activity of our faculty and programs
has grown in concert with our new hospital. Keep up with our
programs through our newsletter (http://www.upstate.edu/gch/
education/newsletters.php) or through our website (http://www.
upstate.edu/gch/). Remember that you can also register to use our
online clinical question system, ePED Direct, through our website.
Thomas R. Welch, MD
Professor and Chair
Department of Pediatrics
Upstate Medical University
Medical Director
Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital