When it comes to medical emergencies and healthcare, minutes matter, especially with children. The new partnership between EvergreenHealth and Seattle Children’s provides an avenue to deliver high level medical care to children close to home.
“If a patient is born in our hospital and needs a neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU, we'll have the services available in an enhanced way because of this affiliation. If a patient comes in through the emergency department and needs to be admitted to our pediatric unit, we'll have more specialists available for them,” explains Chris Bredeson, EvergreenHealth’s Chief Operating and Strategy Officer. “Keeping them in the community is beneficial because they don't have to make that trip in an ambulance or in a car across heavy traffic, so it really reduces travel time and gets treatment started sooner for children.”
EvergreenHealth ranks second in the state of Washington for delivery of newborn babies, with approximately 4,500 deliveries last year. By partnering with Seattle Children’s, it is less likely that moms and babies will be separated in cases where the baby needs advanced medical attention.
“Most of the time, babies are born perfectly healthy and everything's fine, but occasionally when that extra support is needed, it is very stressful when the baby has to be transferred somewhere else and mom is still recovering at our hospital,” says Chris. “We're fixing it so that more babies can stay.”
Keeping children close to home also means easier access for parents to be present as much as possible while still juggling all the responsibilities at home, especially when inpatient care extends into weeks or months.
“When I was six years old, I was hit by a car, and I was in a children's hospital for about six weeks,” Chris remembers. “The hospital was two miles from where my parents lived, and so every day I had multiple family members visit me. As a six-year-old, I wanted them there every minute, but I know it also meant a lot to them. It would have been much harder for them to do that if they had a 45-minute drive.”
In addition to expanding services, the partnership provides more opportunities for community engagement. Involvement opportunities include financially supporting programs through the EvergreenHealth Foundation and volunteering in various capacities at the hospital.
For more information, visit www.evergreenhealth.com.
Partnering with Seattle Children’s, it is less likely that moms and babies will be separated.