Pediatric patients can now see Johns Hopkins pediatric surgeons at WellSpan York Hospital in Pennsylvania. In addition, more Johns Hopkins surgeons have been added to the growing practices at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Howard County General Hospital and Anne Arundel Medical Center in Maryland. These collaborations deliver the triple aim of care at the right time, the right place and the right cost.

“At WellSpan York Hospital, when there was a pediatric surgical issue, the community hospital had to send the child somewhere else,” says David Hackam, surgeon-in-chief of Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. “Now we are their pediatric surgeons, as we have been for our other valued community hospital partners.”

Johns Hopkins pediatric surgeons are onsite and on call at the four hospitals. They see patients in the emergency department, neonatal intensive care unit and specialty clinics. The surgeons perform inpatient and outpatient operations including hernia repair, appendectomy, and lump and bump removal.

The hospitals formed relationships with Johns Hopkins Children's Center so patients could receive care at locations closer to home. “Tertiary pediatric surgery still comes to The Johns Hopkins Hospital but we perform community pediatric surgery in these surrounding locations,” says Hackam.

Thanks to the Children’s Center’s rich history and programs, Hackam says the community hospitals’ clinicians report being both confident and pleased with the level of care provided by the pediatric surgeons. “This community-academic partnership has been very successful for everyone, and especially the children,” he says.

The Children’s Center opened in 1912 as the nation’s first pediatric hospital affiliated with an academic research institution. Today it continues a tradition of innovative pediatric care with nationally recognized specialized programs including newborn and fetal surgery, pediatric colorectal surgery, pediatric surgical oncology, pediatric vascular surgery, and pediatric trauma and burn.