FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 29, 2012
MEDIA CONTACT: Stephanie Poyant
Southcoast Health System
Office: 508-961-5280
Cell: 774-634-1460
poyants@southcoast.org
Rob Graham
Boston Children’s Hospital
617-919-3110
Rob.Graham@childrens.harvard.edu
Southcoast Health System and Boston Children’s Hospital announce
new collaboration
Improved access to pediatric care for children and families across the South Coast region
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Southcoast Health System and Boston Children’s Hospital
today announced a new collaboration to provide enhanced local access to high-quality pediatric
care to children and families across the South Coast region. Beginning in late summer 2012,
Boston Children’s and its physicians will collaborate with local physicians to provide hospitalbased pediatric services for Southcoast.
The pediatric program will be centered at St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford. Boston
Children’s pediatricians will provide 24/7 onsite pediatric care working with local physicians in
pediatrics, family medicine and emergency medicine. A Boston Children’s onsite Medical
Director will be responsible for medical oversight, development and coordination of the
Southcoast hospital-based pediatric care. Additionally, remote pediatric consultative services
will be available to the Emergency Departments at Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River and
Tobey Hospital in Wareham.
“We are excited to partner with Boston Children’s Hospital, one of the country’s top
pediatric hospitals, to enhance pediatric inpatient and outpatient care available to families on the
South Coast,” said Keith A. Hovan, President & CEO of Southcoast Health System and
Southcoast Hospitals Group. “Our local physicians – pediatricians, primary care, family practice
and emergency – have come together in support of this initiative and expressed overwhelming
support for bringing innovative clinical care from Boston Children’s to Southcoast.”
“We are pleased that Southcoast selected Boston Children’s to help provide care to
children and families across the South Coast region,” said Sandra Fenwick, President & COO of
Boston Children’s Hospital. “This collaboration is an extension of Boston Children’s
Community of Care where we work with community hospitals and physicians to provide highquality community-based pediatric care closer to home in lower cost settings.”
To help enhance pediatric care locally, Boston Children’s will establish a variety of
pediatric training and educational support programs for Southcoast physicians, nurses and
ancillary departments. Together, Southcoast and Boston Children’s will implement and monitor
clinical quality standards consistent with the American Academy of Pediatrics and Boston
Children’s guidelines as well as other appropriate standards to deliver the highest quality of
pediatric care.
“The affiliation with Boston Children’s Hospital will allow Southcoast to elevate and
improve access to much needed pediatric services in the region,” said Steven Mendes, MD, who
is a pediatrician with Wareham Pediatrics, Member of the Southcoast Boards of Trustees and
President of the Medical Staff at Tobey Hospital. “A primary goal of the program is to assist
Southcoast clinicians and community pediatricians with pediatric care so that families do not
have to travel outside of the region and can continue to receive their care from their own trusted
local physician.”
Southcoast, Boston Children’s and the region’s pediatricians and family practitioners will
work to assess the need for pediatric specialty services. The assessment will inform the
development of an overarching strategy to provide enhanced access to pediatric specialty
services in the South Coast region.
About Southcoast Health System
Southcoast Health System is a community based health delivery system with multiple
access points, offering an integrated continuum of health services throughout Southeastern
Massachusetts and East Bay, Rhode Island. It includes the three hospitals that make up
Southcoast Hospitals Group — Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River, St. Luke’s Hospital in
New Bedford and Tobey Hospital in Wareham.
Southcoast provides advanced clinical services, such as open heart surgery, angioplasty
and heart rhythm services, comprehensive cancer care, neurosurgery, weight loss surgery,
orthopedic surgery, advanced imaging services and is the only provider of maternity services in
the region. Southcoast is a not-for-profit charitable organization that depends on the support of
the community to provide services. More information is available online at
www.southcoast.org. Connect to Southcoast through social media
at www.southcoast.org/connect/.
About Boston Children’s Hospital
Founded in 1869 as a 20-bed hospital for children, Boston Children’s Hospital has been
ranked as one of the nation’s best pediatric hospitals by U.S. News & World Report for the past
21 years. Boston Children’s is the primary pediatric teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School
and the largest provider of health care to Massachusetts children. In addition to 395 pediatric and
adolescent inpatient beds and 228 outpatient programs, Boston Children’s houses the world’s
largest research enterprise based at a pediatric medical center, where its discoveries benefit both
children and adults. More than 1,100 scientists, including nine members of the National
Academy of Sciences, 11 members of the Institute of Medicine and nine members of the Howard
Hughes Medical Institute comprise Boston Children’s research community. For more
information about the hospital visit: www.childrenshospital.org/newsroom.
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