CLEARWATER – The collaborative efforts between Morton Plant Mease and St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital continues providing more access to specialized pediatric care and strengthened advanced children’s care in north Pinellas with a St. Joseph’s Children’s Specialty Center at Mease Countryside Hospital.
The new specialty center now offers physical, occupational and speech therapy programs as well as pediatric physician services for neurology and endocrinology. In April, gastroenterology and cardiology physician services will be offered. This center is unique in that it also offers convenient, on-site pediatric laboratory services specialized for the smallest of patients.
“Our centers are set up so each child and their family receive one-on-one time with pediatric specialists close to home,” said Kimberly Guy, chief operating officer at St. Joseph’s Women’s Hospital and St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital of Tampa, in a recent press release. “The goal of the specialty center is to offer a medical staff that works closely with family members and primary care physicians to provide children with family-centered outpatient care.”
St. Joseph’s Children’s at Morton Plant Mease services began at Mease Countryside in 2009 and includes emergency services, neonatal intensive care units and an enhanced 18-bed, private inpatient children’s unit. “We are very excited about the addition of the specialty center at Mease Countryside and bringing more pediatric services to families in north Pinellas and southwest Pasco communities,” said Lou Galdieri, chief operating officer at Mease Countryside.
“The continuation of our partnership offers higher level of care for pediatric patients to be admitted to Mease Countryside for inpatient medical care or to St. Joseph’s Children’s for pediatric surgery.”
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