announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Shriners Hospitals for Children – Southern California to provide inpatient surgical services for its pediatric patients. The agreement brings together two of Southern California’s best-known and most widely respected healthcare organizations and marks the first time that the Southern California Shriners Hospital has engaged in such an arrangement.
Shriners Hospitals for Children is a healthcare system of 23 facilities that provides advanced pediatric sub-specialty care, regardless of a family’s ability to pay. The Southern California Shriners Hospital offers treatment for a full range of pediatric orthopedic conditions, cleft lip and palate, and reconstructive and plastic surgeries related to burn injuries and scarring. The location also features the Child Amputee Prosthetics Program, which provides customized prosthetics devices and attendant rehabilitative care to children needing these specialized services.
For more than 120 years, Huntington Hospital has been a bedrock of healthcare in the San Gabriel Valley and is consistently cited for quality excellence nationally by U.S. News and World Report. Renowned for its programs in neurosciences, cardiovascular services and cancer care, Huntington Hospital is an active teaching hospital with graduate medical education programs in internal medicine and general surgery.
“We are pleased to be partners with Huntington Hospital, a recognized leader in healthcare. Working together we will be able to reach more children in need of expert care and serve them even more efficiently and effectively,” said Larry Adamson, chairman of the board of governors of Shriners Hospitals for Children – Southern California. “We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship.”
As a result of this agreement, inpatient surgeries for Shriners Hospitals for Children patients will be performed at Huntington Hospital by members of the Shriners Hospital’s medical staff, all of whom have been granted privileges on Huntington’s medical staff. Patients will then be cared for by Huntington Hospital’s team of nurses, pediatric hospitalists and intensivists, occupational and physical therapists, and other healthcare professionals.
“We are honored that Shriners Hospitals has selected Huntington to be its partner in caring for the needs of so many children from this region of the country,” said Steve Ralph, president and CEO of Huntington Hospital. “For many years we have admired the tremendous work done by Shriners; and we share their mission, values and dedication to excellence in patient care, education and research.”
Huntington Hospital is uniquely qualified to enter into this partnership given that the hospital’s surgical services have pediatric competencies, including specialized pediatric equipment and pediatric advanced life-support certified nurses in the recovery and post-anesthesia units. Huntington also has specialized pediatric hospitalists and intensivists onsite around the clock and dedicated clinical nurse specialists to promote education and competency for the pediatric nurses.
Huntington Hospital is one of the few community hospitals with a broad and comprehensive array of pediatric services including a pediatric-certified emergency department, neonatal ICU, dedicated pediatric unit and pediatric intensive care unit. Recently, the 25-bed pediatric department underwent an $800,000 remodel funded through the generous support of community donors. Similarly, donors recently helped to fund a $1.4 million upgrade of the hospital’s eight-bed pediatric ICU.
The agreement with Shriners Hospitals for Children takes effect later this year. Ralph says it is too soon to estimate patient volume, although it is anticipated that the hospital could treat as many as 300 additional pediatric patients each year.
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