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Building a Bridge to Enhanced Pediatric Care
Access to the best pediatric care is easy in Monmouth and Ocean counties. Here, families can
receive specialized care through two vibrant community hospitals, experienced pediatricians, and a
dedicated children's hospital.
There's a very positive trend occurring
today in pediatric care. "I've
seen the landscape of pediatric care
change within the past 10 years," notes
Joel Edman, M.D., chair of Pediatrics at
Riverview Medical Center. "Medical and
surgical advances have greatly impacted
the need for patients to spend less time in
the hospital, which is good for the parents
and great for the children."
Today, children who were once hospitalized
for two days after a tonsillectomy
are able to go home after an outpatient
surgery and enjoy "therapeutic" ice cream
in their own bed. High fever and dehydration,
which once caused children to be
hospitalized, now often can be treated in
the emergency care center with a 24-hour
period of observation.
Getting Families Home Faster
This makes a child-friendly emergency
care center with a special area for short
stays just what the doctor ordered. That's
why Riverview recently transitioned its
inpatient pediatric unit to a specialized
Pediatric Care Center, which includes
emergency care rooms and short-stay
rooms. It also has a dedicated pediatric
care team.
"We see more than 7,000 children
each year in our emergency care center,"
says Howard Rubinstein, M.D., chair of
Emergency Medicine at Riverview. "Of
those children, 98 percent are treated and
released, 1 percent are admitted for what
is usually a 24-hour stay, and 1 percent are
transferred to a children's hospital for more
specialized care. With the design and
capabilities of this new dedicated Pediatric
Care Center, we'll be able to do what
we've always done but better!"
Quick, Smooth Transitions In Care
In the more serious cases of trauma or
chronic illness, specialized care is just
a quick transport away. As part of the
Meridian Health family, both Riverview
and Ocean Medical Center provide
families with seamless access to a higher
level of pediatric care at K. Hovnanian
Children's Hospital (KHCH) in Neptune.
Pediatric specialists increasingly
choose to work at tertiary care or specialized
children's hospitals because it allows
them to do more of what they do best.
"Thankfully, there is not enough pediatric
volume for specialized care within
every hospital in a community. Specialists
practice where they can do a large number
of cases and consequently deliver the best
quality of care," explains Bruce Grossman,
M.D., director of Pediatric Transport
Services and pediatric intensivist at KHCH.
Hazlet residents Lynn Ann and David
Vuotto benefited from this continuum of
care when their son Andrew fell out of a
shopping cart at the supermarket.
"At first Andrew seemed fine," recalls
Lynn Ann. "But then he stopped speaking
and his eyes began to roll, so I took him to
the emergency care center at Riverview."
At Riverview, Andrew was given a CT
scan. The CT scan revealed a fracture on his skull. He was transferred by a pediatric
transport team to the Pediatric Intensive
Care Unit at KHCH, where "the nurses truly
helped to make an uncomfortable and scary
experience so much better," says Lynn Ann.
After further testing he was released,
with no signs of cranial bleeding.
"Families like the Vuottos are fortunate
to have excellent pediatric care at their
community medical center backed by the
support of more than 80 pediatric specialists
in 25 specialties at K. Hovnanian
Children's Hospital," says Dr. Grossman.
 – Tria Deibert
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