11/1/05

Children’s Hospital

Pediatric health care services in south-central Illinois are now enhanced through membership in a national children’s hospital organization.

The new St. John’s Children’s Hospital, a partnership of St. John’s Hospital and Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield, has been accepted for membership in NACHRI (KNAC-REE), a national network of children’s hospitals. Dr. Mark Puczynski (Pah-chin-ski), medical director of the hospital and professor and chair of SIU’s pediatrics department, explains the benefits to patients in southern and central Illinois.

SOUND BITE: ". . . this has not only allowed us to better serve the needs of children with complex illnesses in our immediate area, but will also allow us to expand our services to numerous other communities in central and southern Illinois."

Thirty SIU pediatric specialists and surgeons are part of the medical team of St. John's Children’s Hospital, including nine specialists recruited during the past 18 months. The hospital has the area’s only pediatric intensive care unit, and is home to the region’s only Level III neonatal intensive care unit. Dr. Puczynski says currently five SIU neonatologists provide care for premature and seriously ill newborns from a 34-county area in central and southern Illinois.

SOUND BITE: "We have the ability to take care of very sick children and infants who present with complicated medical and surgical conditions. On any given day, over 50 percent of our hospitalized pediatric patients are provided care in intensive care units of the Children’s Hospital."

The new hospital makes it possible for sick children to be treated closer to home, especially as SIU continues to recruit more pediatric specialists to its medical school faculty.