By ROBYN H. JIMENEZ
The Dallas Examiner
Children’s Health, one of the largest pediatric health care providers in the county, will soon extend its services to the RedBird community, as part of the Reimagine RedBird effort.
In opening a RedBird clinic, they hoped to tackle the health disparities most common in Back and Latino communities, according to Dawn Johnson, M.D., medical director at Children’s Health.
“We’re committed to building centers of excellence by working with subspecialist in … asthma, healthy lifestyle/weight management, culinary medicine, sickle cell disease, mental health, a teen mother/baby clinic where we can welcome in moms who recently had infants – who are teenagers,” Johnson explained. “We can provide comprehensive health care for the mother and the baby in the same visit, medically complex patients, sexual and reproductive health for our adolescences. And then also Reach Out and Read, which is funded outreach for teaching parents, infants and toddlers the importance of reading by offering them a book.”
Senior Vice President Keri Kaiser, and chief marketing and experience officer, explained that the clinic was growing to meet the needs of one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the country. She went on to say that the clinic’s mission has always been to make life better for children, since it was founded 107 years ago.
The pediatric health center has 3 hospitals and 24 specialty clinics, that provides care to over 300,000 children from birth to adult across North Texas.
The health care system has earned various awards for the care that it offers through various programs. They are North Texas’ only level-one pediatric trauma care center, the highest level of trauma care for children. And it is the only nationally ranked level-four neonatal intensive care unit, the highest level for newborn care. They are also a major transplant center and the sole pediatric heart transplant facility in the North Texas region.
“We’re experienced in treating children’s greatest needs, those things that require the highest level of care, the most innovative treatments, in areas such as: pediatric oncology or cancer care, cardiology, neuroscience, neonatology and gastroenterology,” Kaiser explained. “We have the ability to treat the region’s most complex children.”
Other services include urgent care, emergency room services and outpatient rehab. It will also provide access to dedicated social workers, dieticians and behavioral health resources.
The health system has partnered with four independent school districts, which include 33 schools across 32 zip codes. It will offer school-based telehealth services, designed to reduce the amount of time children are out of school for non-urgent care. The clinic will also offer extended and weekend hours at the clinic. It will also provide a 24-hour nurse advice line and physician on call.
The new center will occupy 150,000 square feet, leased by UT Southwestern, which will offer care for adults on the first floor. Children’s Health will offer pediatric care on the second floor.
The RedBird center will be the first major joint investment between Children’s Health and UT Southwester Medical Center since formalizing its affiliation with a joint pediatric enterprise. The joint venture allows them access to cutting-edge research, pediatric research trials and world-class academic care, according to Kaiser.
The group anticipated being open to its first patients in December. When the facility opens, she said it will have an open-door policy, however, referrals will be needed for specialized care.
She stated that the clinic’s financial advisors would assess and help families who have financial issues. As part of its award-winning care, Kaiser stated that they never turn a child away based on their family’s ability to pay.
“As Children’s does everywhere else and always will do, we take everything,” Kaiser explained. “We take all forms of commercial insurance … Medicaid and CHIP, and then cash pay, no pay. That is something we work with every day in our clinics and it will be the same at Reimagine RedBird.”