Studer Family Children’s Hospital, Nemours Children’s Health partner

Collaboration, ‘Kids Do Better When We Work Together,’ provides ill children and their families with more accessible, coordinated and specialized care.
Through the agreement, most pediatric subspecialists now employed by Nemours Children’s Health also practice on the Studer Family Children’s Hospital campus.
The arrangement will help families have the same doctor that they know and trust follow them throughout the whole health care process.

Two major forces in children’s health care are coming together to make receiving care simpler and more convenient for Northwest Florida families.

Studer Family Children’s Hospital at Ascension Sacred Heart and Nemours Children’s Health launched the collaboration, titled “Kids Do Better When We Work Together,” in July to provide ill children and their families with more accessible, coordinated and specialized care.

Through the agreement, most pediatric subspecialists now employed by Nemours Children’s Health also practice on the Studer Family Children’s Hospital campus.

Quint Studer, a community philanthropist and nationally recognized healthcare leader with connections to both entities, commended the healthcare organizations for working together over two to three years to do what’s best for children and the community.

“In the past, a child goes to Nemours for a lot of their care. Then periodically, they would need to be in the children’s hospital. Normally, you would like your doctor to be able to follow your child, but because the Nemours physicians weren’t always on the staff at the children’s hospital, parents didn’t get that follow,” Studer explained.

“Now they are all one. So parents know that physicians they’ve learned to love and count on can follow their child through all of their care process.”

According to Aaron Carpenter, North Florida president for Nemours Children’s Health, patient volume has already increased.

“In many of our specialties, we’re seeing great demand, which is leading us to think that kids were going out of this community for some of the care that was required. It’s so very exciting to be able to see both the in-patient side and the outpatient side really growing in volume and being able to provide the care right here in this community,” Carpenter said.

He added, “Nemours’ vision for whole child health, and Ascension and Sacred Heart’s vision for being mission based and focused on their values, we are very much aligned in where we’re going. There is a strong commitment on both organizations to be settling in and being here for a long time to take care of kids.”

Studer Family Children’s Hospital is the regional leader in pediatric care, while Nemours Children’s Health is one of the nation’s largest and most respected pediatric health systems.

Jason Foland, president of Studer Family Children’s Hospital, said since the collaboration started the impact is already being felt.

“Faster appointments. New services like pediatric orthopedic surgery. Coordinated teams instead of families being passed around. Expert care, right here in your community. This collaboration isn’t the finish line, it’s the foundation. A blueprint for mission-driven organizations putting children first,” Foland said in a statement.

Studer said the collaboration will also provide outstanding specialized care close to home for many young patients.

“When people have a child who needs specialized care, they want to go to the best. If the best is close, that’s really helpful,” he said. “When the child is getting care, the family is such a huge part of that. When you have some place close to home that’s really a great advantage for the child and the family.”

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