Scott Webb (Host): No parent ever wants to take their kids to the hospital, but when we have to, it's a comfort when our kids are treated by medical providers that specialize in working with kids. And joining me today is one of those providers, Dr. Sandra Ndiaye. She's a Board Certified Pediatric Hospitalist practicing at Franciscan Health, and she's here today to explain the role and benefits of the Pediatric Hospitalist Program at Franciscan Crown Point.

 This is the Franciscan Health Doc Pod. I'm Scott Webb. Doctor, it's nice to have you here today. We're talking about pediatric hospitalists, right? And I sort of know what that is, right? I know what pediatricians do, I know what hospitalists do, put those together, but it's great to have you here, great to have your expertise, and just want to have you start there, maybe explain your role in overseeing the pediatric services as a Pediatric Hospitalist.

Sandra Ndiaye, DO, IBCLC, FAAP: We as Pediatric Hospitalists primarily take care of children who are admitted to the hospital and that would include sick children, that need to be on the pediatric acute care floor and well babies that are born into the nursery. We may help out with ill babies if they come into the ER and of course sick children that come into the ER. Our ER docs sometimes give us a call to come down and help out or consult on an interesting case.

Host: Yeah, it is interesting and it does seem like that, you know, the way sort of medicine changes and things trend. So hearing more things, more new things like a pediatric hospitalist and as a father of two, I can totally understand having taken my kids to the ED. I can understand the value in having someone who's used to working with children.

Just wondering then, when we think about kiddos that come in and their current pediatric care team, do pediatric hospitalists work with them? Do you consult with them?

Sandra Ndiaye, DO, IBCLC, FAAP: Of course. So, within our Franciscan team, we have our Franciscan outpatient pediatricians who take care, wonderful care of the kids in the community, that need to go in and see their pediatrician in the clinic. And then when these children need to come in the hospital and receive care, whether that's through the emergency room, or if the pediatrician gives us a call from the clinic and says, I have a kid who I think they need to come in the hospital, then, we speak one on one with the pediatricians about the care of their patients and take care of the children as they're coming into the hospital or as they're being seen in the ER.

Host: Yeah, it's great to hear that those lines of communication are open and that there's some sort of triaging going on and then you all were like, okay, well, we have a child coming in and they're going to need our care. We've spoken with their team. That's awesome.

Sandra Ndiaye, DO, IBCLC, FAAP: To expand upon that, when the child goes home from the hospital too, we reach out to the pediatrician and make sure we discuss any tests that need following, anything that maybe just doesn't seem, you know, quite standard, that needs to be followed up with that pediatrician and close the loop so that they can continue on with the outpatient care as well.

Host: Yeah, that's awesome to hear, and I want to talk to you a little bit about babies being born, which is usually a good conversation, and hopefully it will be here, but if we're talking about a baby that's born at Franciscan Crown Point, what can parents experience, you know, in terms of care, who would be caring for their baby, maybe you can explain the roles of the care team as well?

Sandra Ndiaye, DO, IBCLC, FAAP: So if a baby's born at Franciscan Crown Point, and they're a well baby, so they're going with their mom to the postpartum unit. Then they'll be rooming-in with their mom in the postpartum unit, and the pediatrician will come in and see the baby every day that they're there, check in on the baby, answer any questions that mom may have, and really just be there as the pediatrician 24-7.

And then if the baby is maybe not doing so well and needs to go to the neonatal intensive care for some monitoring or for some supportive care, then we have a wonderful team of very experienced neonatologists that are also Lurie Children's and Franciscan Crown Point teammates that will take care of the children, the infants in the neonatal intensive care.

Host: Right. And of course, it just brings a big smile to my face. You know, just thinking about this sort of team approach and all these experts, you know, caring for babies and children. We mentioned earlier about the ED and unfortunately, and as I said, I have two kids and I have been to the ED many times for generally sports injuries, but, they have, often have frequent urgent care and ED visits. I want to have you talk about the expansion that we're discussing here today and how maybe it impacts available pediatric services.

Sandra Ndiaye, DO, IBCLC, FAAP: Sure. So when a child needs care in the emergency room, our ER physicians are wonderful at taking care of the families, but there's, you know, the occasional time that they want the pediatrician's point of view or maybe even an extra set of hands. And so they'll call our teammates and we'll come down to the ER, meet the family, consult on any questions the emergency physician might have, and sort of help make that decision on whether or not the child needs to come in the hospital or can go home. And just be a pediatric centered and pediatric knowledgeable teammate to help best care for the child. And of course, if unfortunately a child comes in just critically ill that needs all hands on deck, then we're there as well. I like to tell our ER physicians that they are the emergency specialists, but I'm there to translate things to pediatrics.

So make sure that we're bringing that Lurie Children's Pediatric Hospital care all the way out to Crown Point and giving children the best chance that they can to get stabilized and admitted to the right facility to help them get better.

Host: Yeah, and of course that's going to be a comfort not only to the child, you know, to the patient, but also to parents and caregivers. I want to have you go through and just elaborate on some of the benefits of having specially trained pediatric hospitalists. Let's just kind of like put a little list together here. Just all the many awesome benefits.

Sandra Ndiaye, DO, IBCLC, FAAP: So our team is a collaboration with Lurie Children's Hospital based out of Chicago and the Franciscan Health Services system. And so we have a team of Lurie Children's Pediatric Hospitalists that are in house 24-7 to care for children that come through to Franciscan Crown Point.

And with that, there is someone ready to meet your family and escort you up to the pediatric floor, make sure the child has everything they need to get better while they're here at Franciscan Crown Point. And be there 24-7 to care for the family and the patient if needs arise in the middle of the night, first thing in the morning. We round on patients every day. We try to have a family centered approach to rounding. So we have the nurse present, the family present, and we round in the rooms, so that we can all discuss the care in a collaborative way.

 And then, try to obviously help the children go home as soon as they're ready from the hospital. With someone there 24-7 that is affiliated with Lurie Children's, we also have the ability to call our Lurie Children's pediatric specialists at any time and have a conversation about the care of the child in the hospital.

So we can consult with infectious disease specialists or kidney specialists or heart specialists as we need, which really helps to make sure that we are looking at the case with all the specialists that we might need as physicians.

Host: Yeah. Yeah. And of course, none of us parents want our kiddos to be in the hospital, but if they have to be in the hospital, it's just great to hear that there's just such a well trained, you know, comprehensive team and other experts are just a phone call away and no one's afraid to make that phone call.

It's really great. Just want to finish up here. You know, I know the Franciscan Health Pediatric Hospitalist Program means that services are available through referrals and transfers from any Franciscan Health Urgent Care or ED. Maybe you can explain as we wrap up here what that means for pediatric care throughout the entire region that Franciscan serves.

Sandra Ndiaye, DO, IBCLC, FAAP: Absolutely. I did want to touch on that. So our Franciscan Transfer Center, will take a phone call from any of our Franciscan hospitals and patch them through to the Pediatric Hospitalist that's on for the day. And we can accept many of the children that are at other ERs that may need to have short stays in the hospital.

And we have a Franciscan ambulance that will come over and pick those children up. And, it's a short ride into Crown Point. We will meet that ambulance as they arrive and make sure that that child gets settled nicely on our pediatric floor. So it's great that we have a unit that has available beds for kids within the Northwest Indiana region. And so those families that need care don't have to go so far from home.

Host: Yeah, that's a comfort. And as all of us parents, you know, me hosting and those in the audience, knowing that that care is so close and so accessible and experts just waiting there to help our kids. Good stuff today. Thank you so much.

Sandra Ndiaye, DO, IBCLC, FAAP: I appreciate it. I'm so happy to be serving the families of Northwest Indiana, and the gratitude that we have felt since we opened our doors has been wonderful. So thank you all and we look forward to serving you.

Host: Yeah. Hearing about this expansion is just awesome. Brought a big smile to my face. So thanks again.

Sandra Ndiaye, DO, IBCLC, FAAP: Thank you.

Host: And for more information, visit franciscanhealth.org and search pediatric medicine. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels, and be sure to check out the full podcast library for additional topics of interest. This is the Franciscan Health Doc Pod. I'm Scott Webb. Stay well, and we'll talk again next time.