DANBURY — Connecticut Children’s patient families, hospital leaders, politicians, and members of the media recently celebrated the medical center’s Danbury multi-specialty clinic opening with an official ribbon cutting ceremony.

The brand new facility on Newtown Road offers expert pediatric care services in 12 specialties, including cardiology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, pediatric surgery, hematology-oncology, nephrology, neurology, pulmonology, rheumatology, urology, and imaging services like ultrasounds, x-ray, echo, and electrocardiograms.

The Honorable Mark Boughton, Danbury’s mayor; Jim Shmerling, Connecticut Children’s President and CEO; and Jessica McNamara, whose five-year-old son, James, is a Connecticut Children’s patient diagnosed with hemolytic anemia, were honored speakers.

Mr Shmerling emphasized Connecticut Children’s pride in its ability to bring expert, trustworthy medical care closer to families’ homes, thereby easing what can be a difficult day in the lives of many parents.

Mayor Boughton echoed similar sentiments and excitement for a Connecticut Children’s clinic in Danbury.

“At the end of the day, it’s what is in the best interest of the child,” he said. “This facility is really about kids and about giving them the best possible experience — when they aren’t already having the best day of their lives — and when they need the coaxing; coaching and mentoring; and the love, care, and guidance of a medical care professional.”

In 2018, Connecticut Children’s began a new collaboration with Western Connecticut Health Network, now called Nuvance Health, in which our pediatric experts provide care for children who are patients at Danbury Hospital and Norwalk Hospital.

Since launching that partnership, Connecticut Children’s staffers heard feedback that this community needed access to more pediatric programs and services. With this in mind, the hospital launched its new facility where Connecticut Children’s is now offering appointments with experts in 12 pediatric specialties with plans to continue expanding in the area.

This was an important move for the specialty hospital because more than 30 percent of the state’s children live in Fairfield County.

In a conversation with hospital COO Gil Peri, he explained that Connecticut Children’s is committed to reinventing healthcare and making it easier than ever for parents to get the care they need for their children through things like telemedicine, online scheduling, and reimagening the patient family experience through partners like Disney and Dimensional Innovations.

Mr Peri said the hospital is creating relationships with adult care institutions to manage in-patient services, surgical and neonatal care, and is expanding into the region offering almost exclusively sub-specialty care for the time being.

“Our neonatal care will be provided at Danbury, Norwalk, and St Vincent’s Hospitals,” he said.

Mr Peri said parents should know that Connecticut Children’s is the only state health system “exclusively dedicated to children and their families — we’re the only ones who focus 100 percent just on kids.”

“There are other providers who have children’s interests, but they are part of adult care systems,” he added. “And with this newest facility and our western Connecticut partnerships, we’re bringing this exclusive and expert pediatric children’s care closer to home for parents and kids in Newtown than ever before.”

Mr Peri said Connecticut Children’s is also committed to caring for kids even when they are not receiving hands-on medical care, or are patients in the system.

“We’re focusing on prevention as well with a whole group of folks who coordinate school partnerships, working with community centers like the YMCA Children’s Center in Bethel, doing health promotions and well-being work,” he said. “We think it’s important for moms and families to know that we care for kids and try to keep them healthy all the time — not just when they come to us feeling sick.”

Mr Peri said as children were getting ready to return to school, Connecticut Children’s brought in a range of experts to help parents and caregivers.

“We also have a Healthy Homes initiative that identifies kids who are suffering with asthma, and when they present, we can help identify triggers and can set up remediation in those homes through a grant,” he said. “I believe we identified some homes in Newtown that are benefiting from that program.”

Looking forward to the next few years as Connecticut Children’s integrates into western Connecticut, Mr Peri said the hospital will continue seeking and hiring some of the best pediatric specialists, not only from across the country, but from around the globe.

“Increasingly, though, we’re focused on hiring specialists who work and live in Fairfield County,” he said. “In the next three to six months, we’re planning to bring into the Danbury area an emergent care specialist and urgent care clinic with a nurse practitioner who will have real-time telehealth contact to all our experts in Hartford.”

He said this will give patients the ability to have an initial consult close to home at that soon-to-be-announced Danbury location.

In closing, Mr Peri said he is particularly happy that Connecticut Children’s is aligning with Nuvance, the former Western Connecticut Health Network, and is looking forward to opportunities to expand Connecticut Children’s networks and expertise into New York’s Hudson Valley and into the northwest corner through Sharon Hospital.

“We are Nuvance’s formal pediatric partner of choice,” Mr Peri said.

For more information, visit connecticutchildrens.org or call the Danbury center at 833-733-7669.