DAVID MAMARIL HOROWITZ

david.horowitz@bgdailynews.com

 

 

Norton Children’s Hospital and Graves Gilbert Clinic are planning to expand pediatric care through a new collaboration in Bowling Green.

Plans for the collaboration include expediting referrals to specialty care, adding a new space for collaborative pediatrics, building telehealth programs together and collaborating to attract doctors and pediatric medical experts to Bowling Green, according to Susan Strack, system vice president of pediatric services at Norton Children’s.

The organizations aim to pool resources to make more specialties available more often in the community. In Bowling Green, parents have had to travel out of town when their children have a serious issue, said Mike D’Eramo, CEO of Graves Gilbert Clinic – and the premise was to ask experts in the community to partner and address that.

Graves Gilbert Clinic, which has its main campus on Park Street, comprises 27 facilities, including larger ones on Nashville Road and physician practices in the region. Norton Children’s – which has for years provided pediatric primary and specialty care in Bowling Green – is based in Louisville and runs the largest pediatric hospital statewide.

The partnership will make it easier for pediatric primary care physicians to refer patients to specialty care physicians, Strack said. For instance, if a primary care pediatrician believes a patient requires an evaluation for potential seizures, the partnership facilitates enabling the child to see a Norton Children’s neurologist in Bowling Green quickly, according to Strack.

“There’s a lot of power in that primary care-specialty care physician communication and relationship,” Strack said. “That’s what this allows us to do more of.”

The two organizations are also looking at opening space for Norton Children’s within Graves Gilbert Clinic to serve primary care physicians, Strack added.

Norton Children’s – which offers pediatric cardiology, neurology, urology and neonatal follow-up in Bowling Green – plans to use the space to grow its local offerings and add others that it offers in Louisville, such as endocrinology, behavioral health, orthopedics and gastrointestinal care, Strack said.

The space will also enable the two organizations to build stronger relationships between Norton Children’s specialists and Graves Gilbert providers, and to share ideas on patient care, she added.

“It means more services,” she said.

For example, she said, it means that if Norton Children’s has one day a week with cardiology in Bowling Green, the expansion will allow for multiple days – and while the organization doesn’t offer gastroenterology services in Bowling Green, the expansion will allow Norton Children’s to bring the service to the community faster.

Adding the space could take nine to 12 months or longer, Strack said.

There’s also an academic piece to the collaboration, D’Eramo said.

Norton Children’s holds a strong academic partnership with the University of Louisville – and the collaboration will provide Graves Gilbert Clinic doctors better access to research that’ll enhance care, he added.

“They have access to, ‘Hey, what research is going on?’ ‘Hey, can some students rotate here from the University of Louisville?’ “ he said.

Maybe they want to move to Bowling Green.”