Collaboration Brings Pediatric Hospitalists to ... - Magazooms

From the Medical Director
William F. Schmidt III, M.D., Ph.D.
We often see businesses –
even in health care – seek to
defeat, destroy or dominate
the competition. But there’s
another way: cooperate and
collaborate. One party need
not lose for the other to win.
At Children’s Hospital of
Greenville Hospital System,
we look for ways to engage
in partnerships that improve
the health of those we serve.
The cover story on pediatric
hospitalists highlights an
example with AnMed Health
System that benefits both
hospital
systems and
our patients.
AnMed
Health built
a spectacular
children’s
facility to care for inpatients,
yet its pediatric market share
kept declining. Why? It seems
that people were bypassing
Anderson to admit patients
to GHS Children’s Hospital,
which they perceived as
providing a different level
of care. For AnMed Health
to reverse this trend, it had
to invest heavily in pediatric
recruitment, services and
infrastructure – or work with
someone who could deliver all
those in their facilities.
Children’s Hospital already
had invested heavily in
pediatric specialty services
and was a tertiary care center.
The influx of general inpatient
cases to Children’s Hospital
from outside the immediate
Win, Win,
Win
service area was overcrowding
our beds, making it hard
to accept patients needing
specialty care. To correct this
trend, we had to staff more
beds or collaborate with
someone who could care for
these patients with us.
The result was a partnership.
Children’s Hospital recruited
and employed pediatricians
to serve as
hospitalists
and minor
care
physicians
at AnMed
Health.
AnMed
Health backs the cost of their
salaries, and the physicians
follow the same quality
measures and protocols that we
use at Children’s Hospital.
Working together to
achieve a goal, we can
disperse scarce resources
wisely and create systems
Despite initial pushback
in both communities, this
arrangement has been good
for AnMed Health, bringing
added pediatric expertise and
reversing its downward slide in
market share. It also has been
good for Children’s Hospital,
freeing up beds needed for
specialty care.
Most important, it has been
good for many families in
Anderson County whose
children can be cared for close
to home when they require
hospitalization.
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