1999

Cincinnati Children's Enters Into Affiliation With Children's Medical Center in Toledo

Thursday, July 29, 1999

CINCINNATI -- Children's Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati has signed an affiliation agreement with Children's Medical Center of Northwest Ohio (CMC) in Toledo.

The initial focus of the agreement is to jointly develop a fully integrated pediatric cardiology and cardiovascular/thoracic surgery program at CMC. Other services will support the growth of the hematology/oncology service at CMC. Services to be developed include infectious diseases, nephrology and rheumatology.

Physicians from Cincinnati Children's will provide some of these services in Toledo. When appropriate, children and their families will travel to Cincinnati for highly specialized care not available in Toledo, such as complex cardiac surgery and bone marrow transplantation. In addition, the agreement allows Cincinnati Children's to increase educational opportunities for its residents and fellows, and it expands the population base for many of its clinical research studies.

"This affiliation supports our vision to be the leader in improving child health, and it strengthens our regional and national reputation as a provider of quality pediatric services," says James Anderson, president and chief executive officer of Cincinnati Children's.

Adds Janice McBride, president of CMC, "This affiliation agreement presents the best option for children in northwest Ohio because it provides local access for these children and their families at CMC in Toledo with the depth of experience in particular specialties at Children's Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati."

As part of the agreement, Cincinnati Children's will have exclusive ties with ProMedica Health System, CMC's parent corporation, within a 21-county area in northwest Ohio, bounded by Toledo, Sandusky, Defiance and Lima. Likewise, ProMedica is exclusively tied to Cincinnati Children's in that same region.

A committee composed of four representatives from each organization will manage the affiliation with CMC. Cincinnati Children's will be represented by Thomas Boat, M.D., director of the Children's Hospital Research Foundation and co-chair of the committee; Richard Azizkhan, M.D., surgeon-in-chief and director of pediatric surgery; Mike Farrell, M.D., chief of staff and director, pediatric residency training; and Dee Ellingwood, vice president of planning and business development.

CMC is a 151-bed children's hospital located on the campus of the Toledo Hospital, the largest hospital in Toledo. CMC provides a comprehensive range of services for children in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan, including a 60-bed newborn intensive care unit, 18-bed pediatric intensive care unit, pediatric surgery, and emergency and trauma services.

CMC is a member of ProMedica Health System, a not-for-profit corporation composed of five hospitals, rehabilitation, sub-acute and long-term care facilities, and more than 50 outpatient facilities. It also includes the largest HMO in the region, Paramount Health Care, and a physician network.

Cincinnati Children's is a 300-bed clinical, academic and research facility. Services range from well-child care to specialized medical, surgical and rehabilitative services, and include the only Level I pediatric trauma center in its region. Cincinnati Children's consistently ranks as one of the country's top 10 pediatric hospitals, and is first nationally in emergency department visits, outpatient visits and surgical procedures. It ranks third in overall admissions. Research accomplishments include development of the first practical heart-lung machine and discovery of the oral polio vaccine. In 1998, it ranked third in funding among pediatric centers receiving research grants from the National Institutes of Health.