The two largest providers of pediatric healthcare in Louisiana are joining together to provide families even more access to innovative and quality healthcare. Children’s Hospital New Orleans and Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Health recently signed a letter of intent to create a regional pediatric cardiovascular surgical healthcare delivery network.
The parties will align expertise and resources to expand access to specialized pediatric cardiovascular medical and surgical services in Baton Rouge and across the state. Through the formation of this delivery network, Children’s Hospital New Orleans and Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Health will build and expand such services as pediatric electrophysiology, interventional cardiac catherization, and cardiac surgery in Baton Rouge for the first time.
“This collaboration allows us to do more together for Louisiana’s children,” said Alston E. Dunbar, III, MD, president, Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Health. “This means pediatric heart patients in Louisiana have more access points to highly complex and state-of-the-art procedures. Adding these surgical capabilities and procedures to our new children’s hospital means pediatric patients with complex cardiovascular conditions can receive the highly specialized care they need closer to home.”
Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Health, along with affiliated physician partners across Louisiana, currently provides pediatric cardiology services throughout hospitals and satellite clinics in Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Monroe, St. Francisville, and Hammond. In October, Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Health will open a state-of-the-art children’s hospital in Baton Rouge built from the ground up just for kids, and this partnership will fully utilize the new technology and facilities now available in Baton Rouge to provide more surgical and interventional procedures and treatments.
The Children’s Hospital New Orleans Heart Center has experienced significant growth in recent months, including the recruitment of Thomas Kimball, MD, who will join Children’s Hospital New Orleans as chief of cardiology in May. Kimball joins Children’s Hospital from Cincinnati Children’s Heart Institute, where he served as medical director of their program, which is consistently ranked in the top five pediatric heart programs in the country by U.S. News & World Report.
Children’s Hospital New Orleans has also recently recruited additional pediatric heart specialists including a perfusionist, two cardiac intensivists, and a heart failure specialist from some of the nation’s top children’s hospitals to ensure kids in Louisiana have access to specialized heart care within the state.
“The growth of our Heart Center team has positioned Children’s Hospital New Orleans to expand services across the state,” says John R. Nickens, IV, president and chief executive officer at Children’s Hospital New Orleans. “Creating affiliations and alignments with like-minded institutions such as Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Health enhances our ability to eliminate fragmentation and deliver high quality pediatric healthcare services to children across Louisiana. Sharing of medical expertise, specialties, and resources enhances care, while at the same time reducing costs and unnecessary duplication.”
“I applaud the innovation of these two Louisiana institutions in coordinating efforts to do what’s best for the children of our state” says Rebekah Gee, MD, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health. “Through this collaboration, children in Louisiana will receive critical heart care closer to home and fewer children will need to leave the state for life saving cardiac care.”
Negotiations between the parties will continue as terms are incorporated into formal agreements.