Selected Podcast

Washington University Pediatric Multispecialty Centers Continue to Open in Community

As St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Washington University pediatricians continue to expand pediatric services within our communities, patients and families are now provided with even more options to access the expertise of Washington University pediatric doctors.

Mark Lowe, MD, PhD discusses the recent openings of two multispecialty center locations in Arnold, Mo, and Shiloh, Il.
Washington University Pediatric Multispecialty Centers Continue to Open in Community
Featured Speaker:
Mark Lowe, MD, PhD
Mark E. Lowe, MD, PhD, a noted pediatric gastroenterologist, has been named vice chair of clinical affairs and strategic planning of the Department of Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He will focus on expanding outpatient programs.

Learn more about Mark Lowe, MD, PhD
Transcription:

Melanie Cole (Host): Welcome. Today we’re talking about how Washington University Pediatric Multispecialty Centers are continuing to open in the community and my guest is Dr. Mark Lowe. He’s the Vice Chair of Clinical Affairs and Strategic Planning in the Department of Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine and he’s a Pediatric Gastroenterologist at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Dr. Lowe, I’m so glad to have you joining us today. I’ve done a lot of podcasts for St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Will you please start out today, by describing the relationship between St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Washington University Physicians?

Mark Lowe, MD, PhD (Guest): I’d be happy to and I’m also delighted to be on the podcast with you today. So, although St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Wash U physicians are separate entities; the Children’s Hospital and the Department of Pediatrics work closely together with a common goal to provide world-class care to children in Missouri and southern Illinois. I think the working relationship between the two entities has never been better. We are happy to continue working together in the future to further improve care in this area.

Host: What an interesting and wonderful collaboration. So, briefly, for us, talk about the strategy that led Washington University physician’s offsite initiative.

Dr. Lowe: Well it’s really simple. We want to make our physicians accessible to families that we serve. And to do that, we have two main goals. One is to make our physicians more accessible and shorten the wait times families have to go through in order to see our physicians. So, we work very hard to improve our wait times and we can now see many patients within a week. And some divisions can even see patients on the same day if the families are available.

And our second goal which is the topic of today is to bring our physicians closer to the children that need our care. We know that travel can be a burden on many of the families, making it hard for them to see our physicians on the main campus or even at the Children’s Specialty Care Center at 64 and Mason Rd. and by opening additional outreach offices; we hope to make it easier for families to access our care, limit their travel time and minimize the disruption of their lives.

And most importantly, allow them to access the care that we provide.

Host: Then let’s start with the Washington University Multispecialty Center in Shiloh, Illinois. Tell us about some of the services provided there.

Dr. Lowe: Okay well that center first opened in July of last year and by September; we had all of our pediatric subspecialties there. The office is in the Memorial Hospital East Medical Building and the subspecialists that are currently there are Adolescent Medicine, Allergy and Pulmonology, Cardiology, Endocrinology, Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nephrology. In addition, some other departments have services there.

Urology is there about once a week. And within the next month or two, Adolescent Gynecology services will be available. We also expect Pediatric Neurology to have an office in the near future. In addition to subspecialty services, we offer some testing there. For instance Cardiology offers EKGs and echocardiograms. And the Pulmonary service offers pulmonary functioning testing at this location.

Host: Wow, that’s very multispecialty indeed. So, what about the services in Arnold, Missouri? Tell us, is that different, or is it very similar to Shiloh?

Dr. Lowe: Well it is very similar to Shiloh. That service location just opened up in January, so it’s very new. Currently we have Allergy and Pulmonology, Cardiology, Endocrinology, Gastroenterology, and Nephrology providing services there. Infectious Disease, Genetics and Neurology will start seeing patients at this location soon. And we’re very excited that ENT will join or ear, nose and throat or otolaryngologists will join Pediatrics at this location probably in mid-summer.

Like Shiloh, we also have EKGs, echocardiograms, and pulmonary functioning testing at this location. And I think this location allows access to folks that live south along I-55 to easily see our pediatric specialists.

Host: So, while you are mentioning to easily see pediatric specialists; are these services Dr. Lowe, are they referral based from pediatricians or other specialists or can parents schedule appointments at their convenience?

Dr. Lowe: Well most of our patients are actually referred by the pediatrician or their family practice provider. And I think for optimum care; that works best because it helps us obtain medical records from the patient’s primary care provider and helps facilitate communication with the primary care provider. But that being said, parents can schedule appointments without referrals with many of our specialists.

Host: Then provide for us, Dr. Lowe, a current state update on the specialty care center in West County and Washington University Pediatric Specialists in Jeff County. How are you doing? Describe some of the community feedback that you are hearing.

Dr. Lowe: Well this has been a very exciting process for us, and the success of the Children’s Specialty Care Clinic like in West County really spurred our interest in developing other outreach sites. This is a full service outpatient facility. It has surpassed all expectations and predictions for growth. So, for instance, in the second year, we have met our five year predictions for patient visits.

Importantly, feedback from families in the surrounding community has been superlative. We have multiple volunteers from surrounding municipalities who act as greeters and perform other services and they keep coming back. Like all of our outreach sites; parking is free and convenient which the families love. In addition to the many services that we have; there are a few new ones that have been added recently or will be added soon. For instance, a Young Athlete Center opened recently. It’s a 4000 square foot facility that provides comprehensive care for young athletes including injury evaluation, injury treatment, injury prevention and sports related concussion assessments. And also, many of our pediatric specialists also participate in this program when their services are needed.

Plans are underway to open a Pediatric Dentistry office in the building. We look forward to further growth and success of this wonderful facility in West County.

Host: Wow, that’s great information, Dr. Lowe. Can you elaborate on any future plans or locations that you’ve got in mind?

Dr. Lowe: Yeah. We do have some plans. Right now, we are actually in the planning for a second CSCC that will be located in South County near where the South Center for Advanced Medicine and it’s segment are located. This will also like our West County site, this will be a full service site, but about two thirds the size of the West County Specialty Care Center.

The current projection is that that will open in late 2020 or early 2021, but like the West County Center; it will have full medical services as well as our ancillary services such as psychology, physical therapy, occupational therapy, radiology and laboratory capabilities.

In addition, we are considering subspecialty offices similar to our Shiloh and Arnold offices in both North County and Charles County. There is no clear timeline for those. But those are clearly areas that have many children and I think would benefit from having our services more accessible to them.

Host: That’s great information. Dr. Lowe, as we wrap up; what else would a referring physician want to know about these services, locations, future plans? What would you like them to know about all these exciting things you’ve discussed today?

Dr. Lowe: Well, I think I want to reiterate that our outreach activities have the sole goal of bringing our fantastic pediatric specialists closer to the families and we are committed to partnering with our referring physicians to make pediatric care in our region, the best. We are committed to good service and communication with our referring providers and want them that we are available to discuss their patients or other questions or concerns that they may have.

Host: Dr. Lowe, thank you so much for coming on and telling us about all the exciting new developments for the Washington University Pediatric Multispecialty Centers. A physician can refer a patient by calling Children’s Direct Physician Access Line at 1-800-678-HELP, that’s 1-800-678-4357. You’re listening to Radio Rounds with St. Louis Children’s Hospital. For more information on resources available at St. Louis Children’s Hospital you can go to www.stlouischildrens.org, that’s www.stlouischildrens.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks for tuning in.