SPUC Spotlight: Children’s Hospital of the King's Daughters, Norfolk, Virginia

By Theresa Guins, MD

In 2014, Children’s Health System (CHS), the parent organization of Children’s Hospital of the King's Daughters (CHKD) in Norfolk Virginia, embarked upon the development of a Pediatric Urgent Care service line. The goal was to bring pediatric care and expertise to the thousands of children in the surrounding communities who were seeking care at urgent care centers and emergency departments that were not staffed by pediatricians.

CHS has under its umbrella eighteen pediatric practices that provide the medical home for a large majority of the infants, children and adolescents in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. While a few of these practices have evening hours, there were no pediatric care options for the child with a laceration, a possible broken bone, vomiting, ear pain or high fever during the evening hours.

CHKD engaged Dr. Theresa Guins, a Pediatric Emergency Medicine specialist and partner in Children's Specialty Group to be the Medical Director of this new service line. The first CHKD Urgent Care Center opened in January 2015 in Chesapeake Virginia with seven exam rooms, one treatment room and three full-time physicians. The facility was open from 4-11pm on weekdays and 11am-11pm on weekends and holidays.

The projected volume for the first year was 9,000 patients. Within several weeks, it became clear that the word was out in the community about the new facility and the response was wonderful. Parents were thrilled that they had a place to bring their child in the evening and on weekends when their pediatrician was closed. They also no longer had to take their child to the ED for a simple laceration or an X-Ray. In the first 12 months of operation, this new facility cared for approximately 19,000 patients.

CHKD opened a second Pediatric Urgent Care center in the city of Virginia Beach in March of 2016. This location has become just as popular with the community and is already seeing the same numbers of patients as the first location. Staffing has been the greatest challenge moving forward, although we have come a long way from those initial three physicians. CSG now employs fifteen physicians and seven mid-level providers to staff the Urgent Care Centers and is actively recruiting. There are plans to open an additional four centers in the next two years.