Hospital officials say advances in treatments for children have greatly reduced the number of children who are admitted to the hospital. Only 3 percent of children seen in Community Mercy’s hospitals end up being admitted, said Dr. Steve Feagins, Community Mercy’s vice president of medical affairs.
Local pediatricians say children deserve to stay close to home, regardless of their numbers.
“This would put a terrible hardship on parents,” said Dr. Vijay Chitkara, a longtime Springfield pediatrician. “Look around, we have a lot of parents who can’t afford the gas to drive to Dayton. There are some people who don’t have any transportation.”
Springfield pediatrician Dr. Lawrence Daykins said the local hospital should be dedicated to its children, whether it’s cost-efficient or not.
“We feel the benefits of having local pediatric care for our community outweigh any financial considerations,” Daykin said.
Finances did not drive the decision, Feagins said.
“It’s a quality of care issue,” he said. Dayton Children’s, by the sheer volume of patients it serves, is better suited for inpatient pediatric care than a community hospital that admits a limited number of children annually, Feagins said.
Matt Graybill, vice president of business affairs at Children’s, said inpatient numbers have gone down nationally. Children’s Medical Center is admitting fewer patients than it used to — down to about 3 percent of those who come into the emergency department, he said.
“A lot of hospitals are struggling with this same decision right now,” he said. Children’s has similar, but not identical agreements with other area hospitals.
Dr. James Duffee, medical director at the Rocking Horse Community Health Center, said he would be happy to have a child-special emergency and an observation unit, if modeled at the Almost Home at Children’s. He did, however, echo concerns about eliminating inpatient care.
“I agree this would be a hardship on a lot of our families,” he said.
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