Chicago's Mount Sinai Hospital to stop seeing pediatric trauma patients

Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago will no longer offer pediatric trauma and inpatient care, effective later this year, according to a Chicago Tribune report.

The hospital will no longer see pediatric trauma patients effective Sept. 1, and plans to seek state approval to cease pediatric inpatient services later in 2017, Dianne Hunter, a spokesperson for Chicago-based Sinai Health System, told the publication.

The hospital attributed the move to an effort "to modify its pediatric care to be more in line with community needs and usage."

Ms. Hunter also cited a decreased demand for the services in an emailed statement to Becker's Hospital Review.

"We have determined that our pediatric patients — those under 18 — less and less require inpatient care. In fact, on an average day, only six patients are being cared for in our 24-bed pediatric inpatient unit, and the vast majority of pediatric surgeries are performed on an outpatient basis," she said.

The hospital will still offer outpatient pediatric services through outpatient clinics, outpatient pediatric surgery, and numerous pediatric specialty services such as gastroenterology, cancer care, genetics and cardiology. She said the hospital will also continue pediatric emergency room services, observation, its level 3 neonatal intensive care services and its Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health Program, which treated nearly 3,000 new patients in 2016.

"Pediatric patients who require hospitalization can receive that care at nearby hospitals, and we plan to put a number of transfer agreements into place," she added. "Without an inpatient unit, we can no longer provide pediatric trauma care, but we are fortunate in Region 11 to have multiple providers of pediatric trauma services, including just 10 blocks/five minutes away at Stroger Hospital of Cook County. Those 16 and over will continue having access to level 1 trauma care at Mount Sinai Hospital."

Ms. Hunter said the hospital plans to use its existing pediatric inpatient space to expand cardiac or medical intensive care, or additional inpatient behavioral health services.

 

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