WVU Medicine Children’s adds physicians to meet patients’ needs
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – As the demand for its services has continued to increase over the last year, WVU Medicine Children’s has recruited multiple physicians to meet the needs of the women and children it serves.
In 2017, 20 pediatric physicians across 13 specialties joined the WVU Medicine Children’s family. They include anesthesiologists, a behavioral medicine specialist, cardiologists, a general surgeon, a hospitalist, infectious diseases specialists, an intensivist, a nephrologist, a neurologist, an orthopaedic surgeon, an otolaryngologist, and a urologist. Also included in 2017’s additions is the state’s only fellowship-trained pediatric dermatologist.
Similarly, the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology added nine providers in 2017, including certified nurse midwives, generalists, a genetic counselor, a gynecologic oncologist, and a urogynecologist.
“Patients are seeking out the world-class care that WVU Medicine Children’s provides more than ever before, and they are presenting with more complex medical conditions than we’ve seen in the past,” J. Philip Saul, M.D., executive vice president of WVU Medicine Children’s, said. “Our goal is to ensure that no woman or child has to leave the state for care, so we have to make sure we have the specialists that people need right here in Morgantown.”
But, the growth doesn’t stop there. More than a dozen pediatric specialists, including an allergist, anesthesiologist, cardiologist, gastroenterologists, a general pediatrician, geneticist, hematologist/oncologist, infectious diseases specialist, hospitalist, neurologist, and pulmonologist, are scheduled to start this year, and one specialist, a neonatologist, is already scheduled to start in early 2019.
Dr. Saul said it is likely several more providers will join WVU Medicine Children’s this year, as recruiting is underway for more than a dozen additional positions.
“We want our patients and our referring providers to know that we have heard their requests for care, and we are doing everything in our power to fulfill them,” Saul said. “All the women and children of West Virginia and the surrounding region should need to look no further than WVU Medicine Children’s for all of their healthcare needs.”
WVU Medicine Children’s – currently located on the sixth floor of J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital, WVU Medicine’s flagship hospital – provides maternal, infant, and pediatric care for West Virginia and the surrounding region, giving care to high-risk mothers, premature infants, and children with life-threatening conditions through adolescence to adulthood. In 2020, WVU Medicine Children’s will move into a new, eight-story tower and three-story ambulatory care center to be attached to Ruby Memorial. For more information, including ways to support the $60-million capital campaign for Children’s new home, visit www.wvumedicine.org/childrens.