Chicago-based Saint Anthony Hospital, which recently received designation as a children's hospital, is focusing on pediatric care after several local hospitals closed their pediatric inpatient units, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The hospital, which has 18 pediatric beds, formed a partnership with University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children's Hospital in 2016. Through the partnership, Comer specialists offer services at Saint Anthony and are available to answer questions from Saint Anthony physicians. Comer medical residents are also training at Saint Anthony, and patients who need more complex services are transferred to Comer and other hospitals.
"So many community hospitals and even some larger hospitals are closing their pediatric units," Saint Anthony CEO Guy Medaglia told the Tribune. "I saw the (children's hospital) designation as a way to say to our community, 'Look, we're serious about staying in pediatrics.'"
Overall, Chicago-area hospitals cut more than 170 pediatric beds between 2012 and late 2017, according to an application Chicago-based Lurie Children's Hospital sent to the state in 2017 to add more beds.
Several of the hospitals cited weak demand as a reason for scaling back on pediatric services, noting certain procedures are increasingly being offered on an outpatient basis.
But partnerships like the one between Saint Anthony and Comer let community hospitals boost pediatric offerings in a more efficient way than by creating their own programs from scratch, said Amy Wimpey Knight, COO of the Children's Hospital Association.