As pediatric physicians and practitioners caring for children and families in northwest Ohio, we share a common goal to ensure that children in our community can access the best care close to home. But after decades of this work, we know that we can’t do it alone.
Nationwide Children’s Hospital has made it clear from their first meetings in Toledo that they are committed to collaborating across boundaries to expand care for children and families in the region. It has said this in meetings and in public forums repeatedly.
These collaborative efforts are no surprise to us — in fact, we first heard about this work when Nationwide Children’s Hospital came to Toledo and partnered with Mercy Health and ProMedica to launch the Toledo Provider Advisory Council, or TPAC, a regularly scheduled meeting to gather feedback and resource needs from community providers like ourselves to improve collective work caring for local children.
Mercy Health’s recent comments about being excluded from efforts to expand care between this community’s two independent children’s hospitals: Nationwide Children’s Hospital and ProMedica Russell J. Ebeid Children’s Hospital are perplexing.