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Pediatric Hospital Medicine Service  (Hospitalist)

The Pediatric Hospital Medicine Service at Arkansas Children's provides compassionate care for all children who stay at the hospital. Hospitalists are pediatricians who care for patients in the general inpatient units and are highly skilled at managing a variety of conditions, providing safe, quality inpatient care and coordinating treatment for children with complex medical conditions.
Our hospitalist team is dedicated to providing excellent care for your child at the hospital and after he or she returns home. We team up with your primary doctor and other health professionals involved in your child's care. Your primary doctor will receive an overview of your child's hospital stay and detailed instructions for any continuing care.

The Pediatric Hospital Medicine Service at Arkansas Children’s also promotes the health and wellness of all children by training and preparing future health care professionals and by creating innovative systems of care with a relationship-centered approach.

Hospitalists at Arkansas Children’s are available for patients 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Our teams deliver complex care, and we have teaching teams with residents and medical students in order to train the next generation of doctors. We care for nearly 6,000 inpatients each year.

We often care for children with these conditions: 

  • Asthma
  • Bronchiolitis
  • Pneumonia
  • Sepsis
  • Urinary Tract Infections

Our full range of treatment and services includes assisting children and families with the following:

  • Care coordination of complex medical conditions
  • Common pediatric illnesses such as influenza and dehydration
  • Infectious illnesses of the blood, skin, lungs, bones, and kidneys
  • Problems with chronic illnesses
  • Recovery from injuries
  • Respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia and croup

Outside physicians can call with a direct admission request or questions. Doctors should call our dispatch line at 501-364-6429 to be connected with our Hospitalist On-call.

Patient families or their doctor should provide:

  • All recent and relevant documentation
  • Imaging reports
  • Lab reports

Our hospitalists are involved in many aspects of improving healthcare for children. Our team is active in advocacy, improving communications between providers, research, and education.

Advocacy. Hospitalists work to empower patients and families by teaching them ways to stay healthy. Our programs include:

  • Patient and Family Centered Care. We provide treatment in a way that involves patients and families, making them a key part of a child’s healthcare team.
  • Relationship Centered Communication. We strive to make sure our interactions with doctors, nurses, patients, and families are easy to understand and accurate. The Pediatric Hospital Medicine Service section chief is a MASTER (Mastering Advanced Skills to Enhance Relationships) communications trainer at the University of Arkansas Medical System.
  • Safe Sleep for Infants. The Pediatric Hospital Medicine Service helped Arkansas Children’s achieve Gold certification status from the national organization Cribs for Kids

Patient Handoffs. It is critical to provide accurate information about a patient from one member of the health care team to another, such as when a new nurse begins a shift. This “patient handoff” is key to providing excellent patient care and safety. Our hospitalists created and use several programs to ensure high-quality handoffs, such as:

  • Asthma Clinical Standard Workgroup
  • Preventing bronchiolitis readmissions
  • Preventing emergent escalation of care with the Watcher Program
  • Using I-PASS, a nationally recognized evidenced-based handoff method
  • The patient safety officer at Arkansas Children’s is a hospitalist

Research. Our hospitalists are active on the research bench. Such work ensures that children have access to the most advanced care at Arkansas Children’s. Recent work includes:

  • Completion of a 2-year, nationally-mentored IPASS Handoff Project (2016)
  • Innovations in Education grant for Quality Improvement curriculum for residents (2016)

Our hospitalists serve as leaders in training future doctors and frequently are honored for their teaching.
This includes:

  • Chairing multiple Faculty Mentoring Committees
  • Serving as Pediatric Honor Student Advisor
  • Serving as advisors for multiple junior student and pediatric residents

Teaching honors include:

  • 3 Teaching Scholars
  • 1 Gold Sash Award winner
  • 4 Red Sash winners
  • 2 Chairman's Teaching Award finalists

Our hospitalist team is a multi-disciplinary team that includes board-certified pediatricians, pediatric residents, Certified Nurse Practitioners (CNPs), fellows, pharmacists, dietitians, speech therapists, respiratory therapists, social workers, discharge planners, medical students, and bedside nurses.

Are you looking for a hospitalist job?  We want to hear from you!

Email Rebecca Latch, MD, FAAP