Dear Colleagues,
I hope that each of you are doing well!
It was wonderful to spend time with so many new faculty at our UNC Children’s New Faculty Welcome reception and at the Norma Berryhill Distinguished Lecture. October has been a busy month for UNC Children’s and as we move into November, the inpatient census continues to increase. Please remember that there is a Children’s administrator on-call every day to answer any questions about transfers, potential discharges, inpatient census or any other relevant issues.
I would also like to thank all of you for your commitment to increasing our presence in Wake County. We are now less than 2 months away from opening UNC Children’s Raleigh which will include outpatient specialty care, a children’s dedicated urgent care, inpatient medical care and even ambulatory surgeries at Rex. This multi-specialty children’s clinic will increase access for many of our families in the Triangle area as well as those from the eastern part of the state. This is the biggest single advance in our facilities and ability to care for patients since the Children’s Hospital opened in 2002. The best thing about this step forward is that it will be just the start of a lot more exciting developments and facility improvements in the coming years! I hope you are all sharing my excitement as this becomes a reality.
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UNC Children's Raleigh Urgent Care
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Main Entrance
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Vestibule and Waiting Room
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I had the pleasure of visiting UNC Children’s Sanford this week. I would like to thank those of you who serve in this area. The staff at this clinic are simply outstanding and the clinics in Sanford are already very busy.
Our research initiatives continue to grow and the CRI is planning a research day with Duke, Wake Forest, and East Carolina Universities for the spring. Keep reading for the date!
Please help our education office as we begin interview season!
Thank you for your continued commitment to the children and families we care for at UNC Children’s!
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Pediatric Missions Update
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Our clinical care continues to expand! Total Children’s outpatient visits are up almost 20% year to date. Similarly, our overall inpatient volume continues to grow despite space constraints and we are up about 5% year to date.
Thank you to Cindy Reilly, Tim Vece and others in the Airway Center who have started documenting and billing for their tracheostomy rounds in the hospital. This is a very important way to systematically improve the safety of children in our hospital with tracheostomies and high-risk airway problems. Thanks to the Airway Center team!
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The Education office has begun the interviews for this year's resident applicants. Interviews will continue through January 2020. The office seeks faculty volunteers to interview candidates for Pediatrics and Med-Peds residencies. Contact
Kelly Lear
and
Robin Howard
for details.
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UNC Research Week - November 4-8, 2019
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The UNC School of Medicine will participate in events during the upcoming UNC Research Week. This includes the Hettleman Talks on November 4th, a CroEM Open House on
November 8th, and the Art in Science showcase in the lobby of Bondurant Hall throughout UNC Research Week.
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University Research Week is an annual celebration of Carolina’s research excellence and an effort to increase participation by students, of all levels, in research activity.
Through lectures, workshops, lab tours, and more, the campus community
will become more familiar with our world-class research and the strategic initiatives
that make Carolina one of the top research institutions in the world.
#UNCResearchWeek
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Congratulations to
Dr. Alison Sweeney
, lead pediatrician on the award for the “Re-engineering Postnatal Unit Care and the Transition Home to Reduce Perinatal Morbidity and Mortality.” UNC is partnering with Ohio State University Systems Engineering and the North Carolina State University College of Design, to establish North Carolina Women’s Hospital as a transdisciplinary Learning Laboratory for mother-infant dyadic management in the postnatal hospital unit and during the transition home.
Congratulations to
Dr. Stuart Gold
recipient of an infrastructure award from St. Baldrick’s Foundation. Funds will be used for salary support of bone marrow transplant personnel and phase I/II trials.
Dr. Elisabeth Dellon
is site PI and Lead Consultant for a new CF Foundation multicenter grant on palliative care in advanced CF lung disease.
Congratulations to pediatric CF clinical trials team led by
Dr. George Retsch-Bogart
for its role in the trials leading to the recent FDA approval for Trikafta, a new CFTR modulator that is expected to lead to significant improvements in the prognosis of CF lung disease.
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From the CRI
NC Academic Pediatric Centers Research Day
March 3, 2020
Join us for a collaborative day with research colleagues from
Duke, Wake Forest, and East Carolina!
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PPHM Biorepository
Pediatric researchers, we want
your input!
The CRI is participating in the Program for Precision Medicine in Healthcare (PPHM) Biorepository Working Group. This group wants to develop systems that will more fully utilize biospecimens currently being stored at UNC, such as through the creation of a virtual repository. As part of this effort, we invite all pediatric researchers to participate in a
brief survey
regarding any samples they may have collected and to provide some initial feedback regarding a PPHM Biorepository.
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Congratulations to Pediatrics Genetics Fellow,
Liz Jalazo, MD
who along with Scott Magness, PhD, was part of a large contingent of researchers from across the country who met with Congressional leaders to stress the importance of biomedical research and continued funding.
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Every year since 1963, UNC Hospitals Volunteer Association has sponsored a North Carolina High School Health Career Symposium in Carrington Hall, the School of Nursing. This year the focus was on Neonatology, the care of premature and ill infants. Over 135 high school students from all over the state of NC attended the daylong event which included a keynote by Dr. Sofia Aliaga, 3 interactive skills stations for students to experience and participate in and a panel of professionals from the Newborn Critical Care Center that included RNs, MD, NNP, RT, PharmD, LCSW, and a Registered Dietician. Over 35 multidisciplinary staff volunteers from the NCCC helped to make the day fun and exciting for the students.
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The Council on Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (COQIPS) held its annual program at the AAP National Conference and Exhibition. Ten platform presentations and 39 posters were inspiring, wonderful examples of the QI and research work taking place all across the United States.
Congratulations to authors
Erin Orth, MD; Emily Vander Schaaf, MD, MPH; Alana Painter, MD; Laura Lemley, MD; Jennifer Bowles, MSN, CPNP-PC, NNP-BC2
, who were selected by their peers for the Best Platform Presentation for their project titled “Implementing
Reach Out and Read
in the UNC Newborn Critical Care Center”.
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We are grateful for the work of our Development team in promoting our mission and coordinating fundraising efforts.
Today marks the midway point of an eight-week campaign for donations supporting the Newborn Critical Care Center Family Time program, which allows family members to access cameras remotely and watch their babies in real time.
Visit the site
to learn more about the project and see progress toward the fundraising goal.
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The Pediatrics Diversity & Inclusion Committee will sponsor two Unconscious Bias Workshops, November 1st and November 5th. Additional workshops will be organized and announced in coming months.
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The
Nurses of the Pediatric Infusion Center
are an amazing team! Even though infusions can be a scary and an intimidating experience, the infusion center nurses always create a welcoming and safe environment. We only see happy faces when we visit our patients in the infusion suite. The infusion center nurses frequently go above and beyond by helping families schedule not only their follow-up infusion, but also any coordinating visits with other providers. Even after patients graduate from the infusion center, they often go back to visit the nurses because they have been such an integral part of their journey. Despite increasing patient volumes, they always maintain a great and accommodating attitude. The infusion center nurses provide stellar care and are an essential part of the child’s care team. We think they are the perfect unsung hero!
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