Lucile Packard Children's forms new partnership with CPMC

California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC), part of the Sutter Health network, and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford today announced the formation of a collaborative relationship that will substantially increase Northern California children's access to highly specialized inpatient hospital care.

With an official launch date of January 10th, 2012, pediatric specialty physicians from CPMC and Packard Children's will work side by side at the inpatient units at CPMC's California Campus. The two organizations have created an entity that will provide day-to-day oversight and support for the collaborative effort. Inpatient units will remain under CPMC's license and CPMC will have the overall responsibility for patient care.

Some pediatric specialists from Packard Children's have already begun to provide on-call specialty coverage at CPMC - an essential component of a comprehensive pediatric specialty hospital program - and more specialties are now being phased in over time. Also, as part of the mutual commitment to making care accessible to San Francisco and North Bay families, Packard Children's physicians will hold outpatient clinics in San Francisco so that they can follow patients who have been hospitalized at CPMC.

"As a result of this new relationship, children in San Francisco and the North Bay will have convenient access to more highly specialized inpatient care than ever before," reported Warren Browner, MD, MPH, CEO of CPMC.

"Collaborating with Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and its physicians is ideal for us," continued Browner. "Not only do Packard Children's physicians have a national reputation for providing the highest quality of care, but also their physicians are highly skilled in caring for some of the most complex pediatric cases. This will further augment the expert, personalized care already provided at CPMC."

"Our physicians and staff are excited to join with CPMC physicians in providing world-class care to Bay Area families," said Christopher G. Dawes, president and CEO of Packard Children's. "CPMC is the perfect organization for us to collaborate with - it has a long-standing and superb reputation in the community and with physicians."

Kenneth Cox, MD, chief medical officer at Packard Children's, saluted the new relationship and its impact. "This is an exciting new venture for both CPMC and Packard," said Cox, who is also senior associate dean for pediatric and obstetric clinical affairs and professor of pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine. "There will be tremendous benefits for children who require the hospitals' superior care."

Lorry Frankel, MD, chair of CPMC's Pediatric Division and a pediatric intensive care specialist who came to CPMC in 2010 following 27 years on the staff of Stanford and Packard Children's, indicated that this collaboration will allow both healthcare organizations to succeed in an extremely challenging pediatric care environment.

"This collaboration comes at an opportune time," continued Frankel. "Across the country, inpatient care programs are struggling; children's hospitals are consolidating, pediatric inpatient care volumes are declining, and recruitment of pediatric specialists is becoming increasingly challenging."

"With this new relationship, physicians associated with two superb providers of pediatric care can continue to do what they do best - and, in fact, create a situation where we are better together," explained Frankel.

Frankel explained that CPMC and Packard Children's have informally collaborated on complex pediatric cases for several years.

"The informal relationship between the two organizations has been extremely successful to date," reported Frankel. "Now, CPMC will have enhanced ability to provide care to high-acuity, complex pediatric cases."