Pediatric Program Updates
Please click the links below to read the latest update sent to our Network.
Please join us at one of two webinars on Wednesday, June 22, for an update on Tufts Medical Center’s collaboration with Boston Children’s Hospital.
Leading the discussion will be Dr. Geoffrey Binney, Tufts Medicine Pediatrician-in-Chief; Rachel Wasserstrom, VP/Tufts Children’s Hospital; and a member of the Boston Children's Hospital transition team.
Topics will include an update on resources available to you and your patients, the status of our pediatric specialty clinics, and operational details, including how to best reach Boston Children’s Hospital for urgent and non-urgent services. Time also will be spent answering questions you may have.
Click here for the message sent to our Network.
Please click here for the message sent to our Network.
Please click here for the message sent to our Network.
Colleagues:
As previously announced, Tufts Children's Hospital will close its pediatric inpatient units, effective July 1, 2022. After that date, any child who needs overnight hospitalization will be cared for at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Please note that most of our pediatric programs and community-based services remain open and unchanged. To read the full list of these services, click here.
Please call our information line at (866-978-2399) with any questions you may have. We are here to help.
Dear Community,
We wanted to provide you with an update on all the work being done around the Tufts Children’s Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) collaboration.
We are first and foremost grateful to our dedicated pediatric teams who despite this challenging situation continue to provide world class care each and every day and night, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They are quite simply among the most professional people we have had occasion to work with.
We continue to work closely with each of our teams and with BCH to provide greater clarity on our future direction. Tufts Children’s and BCH leaders continue to meet division by division to work through all that is ahead of us.
We will provide another update when we have more material information to share. Thank you to everyone connected to this important work and thanks again to our pediatric teams for the work they do every day and for working through these changes with us.
Sincerely,
Michael Tarnoff, MD, FACS
President and CEO
Tufts Medical Center and
Tufts Children’s Hospital
Michael Wagner, MD, FACP
Chief Physician Executive
Tufts Medicine
Helen W. Boucher, MD FACP FIDSA
Dean ad interim
Professor of Medicine
Chief Academic Officer
Tufts Medicine/Tufts Medical Center
Michael J. Dandorph
President and CEO
Tufts Medicine
Please click here for the message sent to our Network.
Please click here for the message sent to our Network.
Please click here for the message sent to our Network.
A Message for the Tufts Medicine Clinically Integrated Network
Dear Colleagues:
Based on feedback from our physician community, we’ve decided to cancel the webinar about Tufts Children’s Hospital’s plans to enter into a collaboration with Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH).
A Network-wide webinar won’t allow for the kind of conversation and collaboration that we look forward to having with you.
Instead, we will host smaller forums (input sessions) to address your questions and engage you in discussions about the future of pediatric services.
Our goal is to convene local groups of pediatricians and family practitioners, because we know that patient needs and referral patterns differ by region. We also will schedule meetings with Network leadership teams and interested medical practices. Please look for follow-up announcements with meeting dates and times.
In the meantime, please reach out to me – or any member of the Tufts Medicine CIN Senior Leadership Team – if you’d like to schedule an input session with your group right away.
We look forward to connecting with you.
Best,
Emily
Emily.Young [at] wellforce.org (Emily Young)
President
Tufts Medicine Clinically Integrated Network
A Message for the Tufts Medicine Clinically Integrated Network
January 20, 2022
Dear Colleagues:
The Tufts Medicine Clinically Integrated Network’s vision is to build healthier communities as we accelerate the shift to value-based care. Tufts Medicine, as a health system, is leading change in our community in support of that vision.
Today, we are announcing a major initiative to advance our patient and care team experiences and to expand the reach of our Health System across New England.
Effective July 1, 2022 and pending regulatory approval, Tufts Children’s Hospital will enter into a collaboration with Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) and will close its 41 pediatric inpatient beds, transitioning care for children requiring inpatient admissions to BCH.
In addition, we have begun discussions with BCH on how to best structure the future of our subspecialty clinics (Boston, Brockton, Chelmsford, Lawrence and Woburn), our outpatient surgical/procedural services and our pediatric hospitalist network (Signature Healthcare Brockton, Lawrence General, Lowell General, MelroseWakefiled and MetroWest hospitals).
Level III neonatal intensive care services will continue to be offered at Tufts Medical Center, as they serve as a vital component to the growth of Tufts MC’s highly regarded Maternal Fetal Medicine program and the strong network that has been built across eastern Massachusetts by our neonatology team.
As we make this announcement, we also celebrate the legacy of commitment and caring by the Tufts Children’s Hospital pediatric staff from the founding of the “The Floating” to today. That legacy is what enabled this collaboration with BCH.
Concurrently, we will begin the process to obtain regulatory approval to expand our inpatient capacity at Tufts MC. This will enable Tufts Medicine to address unmet demand for care of critically ill adult patients, while assuring that your pediatric patients continue to get extraordinary care, now through our collaboration with BCH.
We recognize that a strategic decision of this magnitude may create disruptions in the near-term that must be messaged and managed. Several helpful communications resources have been developed for you and your patients, including:
- Answers to Frequently Asked Questions for physicians and pediatric families
- Flier for pediatric families
- Resource line to answer physician and pediatric patient questions: 866-978-2339
- Dedicated section of the Tufts Medical Center website to provide key updates and resources: www.tuftsmedicalcenter.org/BCH.
We also plan to host informational webinars for physicians and practice staff to keep you informed about progress to establish the collaboration with Boston Children’s Hospital. Please look for future announcements of dates/times. All webinars will be recorded for “on demand” listening/viewing.
Our collaboration with BCH is a strategic decision that underscores the Tufts Medicine commitment to accelerate change to improve the health of our communities. Over the next several months as the transition is operationalized, there will undoubtedly be questions that arise. We will be intentional about providing you with the information you need in a timely and concise manner to respond to questions from your patients and colleagues. In the interim, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me directly.
With warm regards,
Emily Young
President
Tufts Medicine Clinically Integrated Network