Stony Brook Children’s Joins National Network of Children’s Hospitals

Stony Brook Children’s Joins National Network of Children’s Hospitals

STONY BROOK, NY, June 30, 2010 — The National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions has accepted Stony Brook Long Island Children’s Hospital for associate membership. 

  

“Participation in NACHRI offers us a vast communications network with people who understand children: their needs, their treatment, and the financing of their care,” said Margaret McGovern, MD, Physician-in-Chief of Stony Brook Children’s and Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics (pictured).

Stony Brook Children’s becomes one of 217 members and supporters of the nonprofit association, a collective voice for health systems devoted to the well-being of America’s 70 million children and their families, no matter how sick or how poor. 

  

“Participation in NACHRI offers us a vast communications network with people who understand children: their needs, their treatment, and the financing of their care,” said Margaret McGovern, MD, Physician-in-Chief of Stony Brook Children’s and Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics. “We look forward to bringing our leadership and special insights to the association and joining in the imperative for stronger advocacy on behalf of all children.” 

  

Established on June 30, 2010, Stony Brook Children’s is a 100-bed tertiary care children’s hospital, the only dedicated children’s hospital east of the Nassau/Queens border. It will provide pediatric patients of all ages with state-of-the-art technology and world-class specialty physicians, nurses and researchers, all contained at the only university-based children’s hospital on Long Island. 

  

Stony Brook Children’s was admitted to NACHRI as an associate member whose aims and activities fulfill a commitment to the advocacy of children and children’s health. 

  

NACHRI is a not-for-profit membership association of children’s hospitals, large pediatric units of medical centers, and related organizations, including those that specialize in rehabilitative and long-term care of children with serious chronic or congenital illnesses. 

  

“We welcome Stony Brook Children’s to the family of care givers devoted to improving the health of children, and we look forward to its active involvement,” said NACHRI President and CEO Lawrence A. McAndrews. “Because of their focus on children, institutions like Stony Brook Children’s are able to identify emerging trends and problems associated with the health of children.” 

  

While children’s hospitals represent less than 5 percent of all hospitals, they account for more than 40 percent of inpatient days and 50 percent of costs for all children hospitalized in the United States — $10 billion worth of care every year. Across the nation, children’s hospitals handle approximately 2.3 million emergency department visits and 13 million outpatient visits every year. 

  

With headquarters on the Virginia side of the Potomac River just across from the nation’s capital, NACHRI’s primary roles are advocacy for children and children’s hospitals, public policy analysis, education for its members and the public and research. 

  

About NACHRI 

Founded in 1968, NACHRI maintains extensive data on children’s health in general and descriptive data on 217 members and the conditions they treat. Some of the issues NACHRI addresses include uninsured children, children dependent on Medicaid, injury prevention, child abuse and neglect, quality of care, patient safety and seriously ill children. 

  

NACHRI is a pioneer in advancing the concept of integrated child health care networks. When fully developed, these networks will make sure that children get the most appropriate and economical health care from experts who are trained at centers of excellence and accountable to the public for children’s health and health care. 

  

About Stony Brook Long Island Children’s Hospital 

Stony Brook Long Island Children’s Hospital currently operates 100 pediatric beds with a faculty of more than 100 pediatric providers in 30 different specialties and more than 200 voluntary pediatric faculty members. More than 7,000 children and adolescents are admitted to SBUH each year and in 2009 the hospital provided primary pediatric care services to more than 50,000 children with Medicaid coverage. In 2011, Stony Brook University Hospital will complete the construction of the most advanced Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in New York State, adding to its existing specialized children’s services, including the Regional Perinatal Center, the National Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Center, the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Program, the Pediatric Cardiology Program, Pediatric HIV and AIDS Center, Cystic Fibrosis Center and the Cody Center for Autism and Development Disabilities. Stony Brook Children’s represents a forceful response by the Medical Center to an increasing national trend within pediatric medicine in the severity of childhood illness, prevalence of chronic conditions and survivorship of care. This hospital will be able to serve the needs of the children of Suffolk County as a community hospital for local residents, a tertiary hospital for complex, chronic or congenital conditions and a safety net hospital for those who are underinsured or uninsured. 

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