In March, Nicklaus Children’s Health System and Broward Health launched their pediatric care ecosystem, a program that strives to go beyond the traditional collaboration model.
“This isn’t the traditional ecosystem model, it’s about pediatric community,” Matthew Love, president and CEO of Miami-based Nicklaus Children’s, said on an upcoming episode of Becker’s “Clinical Leadership Podcast.” “A lot of times when you think about these networks, they start and remain transactional — one organization does one thing, the other does something else, and it’s really paper-driven or transaction-driven. [Broward Health President and CEO] Shane [Strum] and I said from day one: This cannot be transactional. This has to be transformational. This has to last for generations.”
The systems are building their transformational strategy using models like Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Part of the transformational strategy includes embedding all 553 of Nicklaus Children’s clinicians into Broward Health.
“We’re a large adult health system, but these clinicians are walking the halls in their Nicklaus Children’s Hospital white coats,” Mr. Strum said. “If you’re an adult patient and you see that, it makes you feel good about the pediatric care happening right there alongside you. That’s a powerful statement about what we’ve built here.”
Previously, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Broward Health had to send about 20% of its pediatric patients to systems in Miami to receive care. Now, those patients can receive the same care locally. Broward Health has also had several procedures performed for the first time in its 90-year history. This includes the first traveling bedside transcatheter patent ductus arteriosus closure on a 22-week-old premature infant.
With notable success in the first two months, Mr. Love and Mr. Strum are already working on how to make the collaboration operate more efficiently.
“How do we spread costs over a larger infrastructure?” Mr. Love said. “How do we eliminate duplication of services? We’re also seeing pediatric services being shut down across the country, so we have to spread costs over a larger volume while also consolidating and reducing fragmentation. A multifaceted approach is the only way it works.”
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