ROCHESTER, N.Y. — There are now 15 Golisano Children’s Hospitals across the country and leaders from all of them recently met in Rochester. The Golisano Alliance is looking for ways they can work together to serve kids and families both inside the hospitals and in the communities they serve.
Families from across New York have looked to the Golisano Children’s Hospital in Rochester for years when their kids need specialized care. “We’re really honored to be the flagship Golisano Children’s — it’s an honor and it’s something that we take very seriously,” says Dr. Laura Shipley, the Vice Chair of Population and Behavioral Health at Golisano Children’s Hospital.
That’s also why the Alliance decided to hold its first meeting, locally. “There was a connection right away, we talked, what are you doing, what are we doing, what can we collaborate on,” Dr. Shipley says.
The Alliance is focused on collaboration both inside and out of the hospitals they each represent.
Dr. Jeffrey Kaczorowski is the Vice Chair of Government and Community Relations at Golisano Children’s Hospital in Rochester, “what we know is it’s absolutely important to have a great children’s hospital and we do but only about 1 out of 700 kids will end up in the children’s hospital a year, what are we doing for the other 699,” he says.
The Rochester Golisano team has pushed out into the community, specifically targeting underserved children in the Rochester City School District. They have established mental health clinics at schools and facilitated referrals for kids in special education with developmental and pediatric specialists.
The hospital has also been running a program where they send a nurse directly to the home after a baby is born to assess any further needs of the family. “There are about 2,000 births in the City of Rochester, we’re reaching almost all of them now and there are 7,000 births in the county and that’s where we’re going and we’ll get there in the next three years,” Dr. Kaczorowski says.
Other alliance members are interested in starting similar programs. “We have been reached out to now by I think 7 different children’s hospitals saying, how do you do that newborn visitation program, how do you do that integration with your city schools,” Dr. Kaczorowski explains.
While Rochester did some of the teaching, the team also did a lot of learning. They looked to see what other programs they could consider bringing to Rochester to help children who need both acute and basic care. “I think we’re really going to see an opportunity to re-imagine how children’s health care is delivered,” Dr. Shipley says.
“There’s no room for competition for kids anymore, what we need to do is put kids and families first and say what are we going to do together to change some of these early childhood health issues,” Dr. Kaczorowski added.
It doesn’t look like the Alliance will be limited to 15 hospitals. Tom Golisano has said he hopes to expand it to at least 40 over the next several years.
For more information about the Golisano Alliance, Click here.