Children's Health Network
MetroWest Medical Center expands
Children's services
For more than a decade, MetroWest Medical Center has enjoyed
a strong relationship with Children’s Hospital Boston. Two
key components of this relationship are an emergency department
staffed by Children’s pediatric ED specialists and a 24-bed
medical/surgical Pediatric Unit with 24-hour coverage by Children’s
residents. During the last 18 months, this partnership has grown
even stronger with added subspecialties, new Children’s staff
and medical education courses.
The pediatric subspecialty practice at MetroWest and Children’s
have worked together to open a pediatric subspecialty practice
in Framingham that ensures that MetroWest families have access
to Children’s physicians from a wide range of specialties,
including:
• Cardiology
• Endocrinology
• General Surgery
• GI/Nutrition
• Pulmonary Medicine
• Urology
• Full-time Children’s neonatologist in Level II nursery
The medical center’s Level II Special Care Nursery is now
directed by full-time Children’s neonatologist Bertha
Kao, MD. Since the arrival of Dr. Kao over a year ago,
the nursery has seen a 19 percent increase in the number of patient
days for high-risk infants. “This means that many more high
risk infants are being cared for right in their own community,”
says Jerry Wortzman, MD, chair of Pediatrics at MetroWest
Medical Center.
“A neonatologist raises the level of protection for newborns
to a level similar to that of the academic hospitals in Boston,”
says Dr. Wortzman. Children’s staff work directly with Dr.
Wortzman to present the “Pediatric Health Care Summit,”
a medical education seminar to inform primary pediatric providers
of trends in the management of common pediatric health concerns.
The next half-day of presentations by Children’s specialists
will be on March 6 at MetroWest Medical Center (to register, click
here).
