The other key area around primary care that I think is so important, and that is pediatrics. One of the things that we heard, particularly in comments from individuals who participated in the strategic planning process was we need more pediatrics in the community. We have somewhere between 60 and 65 percent of all the pediatric volume leaves our community. Pediatrics is a core service and it’s something that we need to really grow and promote here. We have pediatricians in this community, and they do a great job, but clearly there is a need to expand that.
We are opening our primary care practice on April 4 in McNeil Plaza. We are leasing about 3500 sq. ft. there. We did a walk-through today. It’s going to be a beautiful clinic. We have hired two pediatricians who will be joining us, Dr. Jugta Kahai, who was a pediatrician in Oak Island, will be starting with us April 4. Then, we have a second pediatrician who’s joining that practice during the summer. She’s completing her residency at the University of Chicago. She’ll be relocating to our area. We’re really excited about that, and we think it’s going to be a clinic and a program that everyone can be proud of.
We’re adding sort of a second component to that through a partnership with Coastal [Carolina] Neonatology and Pediatrics, which is a practice down in Wilmington that supports the Betty Cameron Children’s Hospital. They’re going to be offering specialty clinics in our pediatric practice. We’re going to be starting with pulmonology and endocrine, and we’re also going to be offering a NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) follow-up for community, a follow-up for those patients who have to travel to New Hanover for NICU services. They’ll be able to have follow-up back in their communities. We are very excited about that, and we think it’s a service of the community is really going to embrace.
I don’t know if you have seen the News Reporter today, but we are starting to run our marketing campaign. We are featuring children in our community. Our children are our superheroes. We are starting here with the lovely Emma. I think folks know Emma in the room. We did a marketing sort of a photo shoot, and we had a number of kids in the community and we are featuring those children in our ads because we really want, this is about our superheroes, our kids in the community. We’re really excited. The other area that we are focusing on from a programmatic, a clinical programmatic perspective, is in specialty care services. We have a number of initiatives going on with that.
CEO Carla Hollis defines another primary focus for CRHS: expanding pediatric services. She recounts that between 60 and 65 percent of all pediatric volume leaves the county for services. In remedy of that, CRHS has opened a new pediatrics branch, Advanced Pediatrics, located in McNeil Plaza. Dr. Jugta Kahai is the primary physician for the time being, but she will be joined by additional physicians.
Hollis also describes a new partnership emerging in order to expand pediatric services. Southeast Pediatrics will partner with Coastal Carolina Neonatology of Wilmington, in order to provide specialized pediatric services such as pulmonology, endocrinology and a Neonational Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
Additionally, she explains a recent marketing endeavor for pediatric services, which collaborated with local families to portray Columbus County children as superheroes, in an effort to further involve the community and localize CRHS services.
