It may not come as much of a surprise, given the course of the pandemic over the last three years, but the Division of Infectious Disease (ID) in the Department of Pediatrics and at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh hosts one of the busiest clinical infectious disease services in the country. Led by John V. Williams, MD, the division boasts 18 faculty members, many of which are robust researchers in their specialties, and world-class education and training programs for fellows, residents, and graduate students.
And what has become apparent over the last three years of incredible stress, pressure, and demand, is that of all the resources needed to provide world-class care to our pediatric patients, one of the hardest to manage is time. With around 85% of all patients in the Division requiring inpatient services, physicians and clinical faculty are stretched increasingly thin.
Or perhaps more accurately, were stretched thin. Last September, division and departmental leadership made a radical decision modeled by only a handful of other centers around the country by splitting clinical ID services into two parts: General and Immunocompromised Infectious Disease.
This move was a huge win for clinical faculty, granting everyone more patient time, lower burnout rates, and increased time to teach residents and fellows. Or, as Andrew John Nowalk, MD, PhD, clinical director of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital, puts it, “Splitting into separate general and immunocompromised infectious disease teams provides many advantages for our Division. Two services allow individual attendings to focus on their specific areas, increases the capacity to provide consultation and documentation rather than simple curbside consultation, and in the end provides better inpatient care and coordinated outpatient follow up for our patients and families.”
This organizational design will help provide a solid framework for CHP clinicians going forward as currents of COVID, as well as other diseases such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), continue to affect our pediatric populations.
Learn more about the Department of Pediatrics research and clinical efforts in Infectious Diseases here.