Tallahassee (Fla.) Memorial Healthcare has partnered with Baptist Health's Wolfson Children's Hospital in Jacksonville, Fla.
The partnership will include the construction of a Wolfson pediatric-care center on the campus of Tallahassee Memorial. The Wolfson Children's Specialty Center will provide pediatric rehabilitation, cardiology and additional specialty services to patients in Tallahassee, southwest Georgia and southeastern Alabama. It's expected to open in 2018.
Tallahassee Memorial, which includes a 772-bed acute-care facility, offers inpatient pediatric care but does not have an outpatient center. Wolfson will evaluate pediatric specialties needed in the region to determine what services should be included at the outpatient center.
The move exemplifies a growing trend of providers joining forces to develop regional expansion strategies for children.
As health plans shift to narrower networks of lower-cost providers, children's hospitals are backing a bill in Congress that would give states the option of establishing nationally designated children's hospital networks across state lines to provide care for medically complex conditions.
Wolfson Children's Hospital, a 216-bed facility, has also opened four other specialty-care centers in Florida and Georgia. Tallahassee Memorial serves approximately 250,000 children in the region.
