The Meriter Board of Directors has approved a new model of care for children and adolescents  at Meriter Hospital. The new model reflects Meriter’s commitment as a community hospital to continue to offer inpatient, ambulatory and emergency care to pediatric patients. Nationally, 85% of hospitalized children are cared for in general community hospitals.

The program changes center around the recruitment of a team of pediatric hospitalists. Pediatric Hospitalist Medicine programs are becoming widespread as a model to allow hospitals to deliver quality, efficient hospital-based care for pediatric patients while maintaining strong bonds with the community pediatricians. The new model:

• Consolidates pediatric care in a new, 8-bed single unit adjacent to the Emergency Services department;
• Provides care for pediatric emergencies as well as inpatients, outpatients and observation patients;
• Provides care for pediatric emergencies as well as inpatients, outpatients and observation patients;
• Integrates pediatric ambulatory surgery patients into the normal pre-operative and post-operative patient flow; and
• Is managed by the Pediatric Hospitalist Medical Director and Emergency Services Director. 

The Meriter Medical Group will also recruit six to eight pediatricians to further serve families in the Madison area. The clinic practices, emphasizing personalized care and ease of access will be located at yet to be determined sites. Meriter currently has outpatient clinics in Middleton, on Madison’s far-west side (McKee Road) and will soon open a new clinic downtown on West Washington Avenue.

With 3,600 births per year, Meriter is the second largest birthing hospital in the state and serves more than 5,000 children in the Emergency Services department annually.

“As a community hospital and the major owner of a provider-owner health insurance plan, Physicians Plus Insurance Corporation (PPIC), we believe families deserve a full continuum of care,” says Geoff Priest, Meriter Chief Medical Officer. “Meriter’s goal is to develop a program that provides essential coverage appropriate for a community hospital while referring the more medically complex pediatric patients to a facility with specialty capabilities.”