DAYTON — Children’s Medical Center of Dayton will honor a local pediatrician and U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, D-Oh, for their efforts in trying to make sure that all children have quality healthcare, according to Jessica Saunders, the hospital’s Community Relations manager.

Both Brown and Dr. Gregory Eberhart will receive the hospital’s A Child’s Voice Award. The ceremony is open to the public and will take place at 11 a.m. today, May 10, in the lower lever of the hospital’s auditorium, 1 Children’s Plaza.

“They really work to increase access for children in quality pediatric settings,” Saunders said of Eberhart and Brown.

The hospital’s professional staff gives out the award every other year to one doctor and sometimes a legislator, Saunders said.

Eberhart’s practice is in Springboro. He is a former chairman of the hospital’s Department of Medicine, an at-large member of the hospital’s professional staff’s executive committee, according to Saunders said.

“He is one of the driving forces behind SOARNET, which is a free clinic for children” whose families cannot afford to pay for their healthcare, Saunders said. “He has worked to find a way to provide access to care for all children.”

The hospital’s professional staff wanted to recognize Brown because they see him as a legislator who wants to help all children get access to healthcare, according to Saunders.

“He has been one of the leading voices in healthcare reform, speaking on behalf of the needs of children and their providers,” Saunders said. “He understands that having a health insurance card to get healthcare doesn’t always mean having access to healthcare.”

Brown has also been an advocate for the Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education Program, which Saunders said is an effort that tries to make sure that those working and studying to be pediatricians have equal education funding like those going into adult medicine. He also pushes for loan forgiveness programs for pedicatric specialists.

In March of 2009, Brown introduced legislation that was designed to prevent insurers from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions. In January, Brown introduced a bipartisan legislation, the Pediatric Research Consortia Establishment Act, with Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo. The act is designed to accelerate research on childhood illness and address gaps in pediatric research.

“He has been able to write or support legislation for those issues ... He has done a lot here for Ohio,” Saunders said. “He’s supported our statewide research in quality of care. He’s very interested ... A lot of times he is the one who champions the legislation.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2414 or kwynn@DaytonDailyNews.com.