Mary Bridge, Seattle Children's partner to focus on pediatric cardiac surgery services

Seattle Children's Hospital and MultiCare Mary Bridge Children's Hospital today announced the formation of a new 10-year collaboration that will expand pediatric specialty services in the Puget Sound region. Initially, the new partnership will focus on providing cardiac surgery services for infants and children. In the future, the two health care providers will look for more opportunities to work together on improving care for children.

The collaboration brings together expertise from existing cardiac surgery programs at both institutions and adds the services of surgeons from Seattle Children's who will now also perform surgery at Mary Bridge. With this relationship, cardiac surgeons will share protocols and educational opportunities and have the added support and benefit of being faculty members of the University of Washington School of Medicine. This affiliation will bring together the resources of two strong children's hospitals to help ensure that the finest pediatric cardiac surgery practices are available to South Sound patients and their families.

"Patients in the South Sound will benefit from our new partnership with Mary Bridge that will bring cardiac surgery services to more children," said Thomas Hansen, MD, CEO of Children's. "We also look forward to exploring other collaborations that make sense for our two organizations to pursue in the future."

The expanded services are expected to begin during summer 2011. Children's and Mary Bridge estimate that cardiac surgeons will perform over 600 operations annually between the two institutions.

"We are pleased to be collaborating with Seattle Children's, an organization that shares our dedication to caring for children," said Diane Cecchettini, President and CEO of MultiCare Health System. "Together we will work to improve the health of the kids in our communities."