From a kid-friendly website about children’s health to a team of highly specialized care professionals, Willis-Knighton Health System has invested in this community’s greatest resource: our children. With almost 3,300 babies born at Willis-Knighton hospitals in 2013, this is a wise investment.
With KidsHealth, Ark-La-Tex families have continuous online access to information about their children’s everyday care such as vaccination schedules, nutrition and answers to growth and development questions. Found on the WK website, wkhs.com, KidsHealth features thousands of medically reviewed articles, animations, features and news written for three distinct audiences: parents, kids and teens. It’s a tool devoted exclusively to children’s health.
Willis-Knighton is home to many excellent obstetrical and pediatric practices. Neera Chhabra, MD, of WK South Center for Pediatrics, has been practicing there since 1999. “WK has always recognized the importance of parent-patient education,” Dr. Chhabra says. “Take child obesity, for example. With almost one-third of our children being overweight, it is so important to get them on the right track when they are young. We will be providing more nutritional education to help our families combat this epidemic.”
When a child requires hospitalization, advanced maternal-child care is as near as Willis-Knighton South and the Center for Women’s Health. The hospital’s specialty services include pediatric anesthesiology, intensive care, gastroenterology, general surgery, neurosurgery, urologic surgery, ENT surgery and oral-maxillofacial surgery – all dedicated to pediatric patients. To ensure highly coordinated hospital stays, there’s a hospitalist just for pediatric patients.
Mark. F. Brown, MD, pediatric surgeon practicing at WK South and a fourth generation physician, couldn’t be prouder of his team’s specialization. “All we do is surgical care on children. We’ve dedicated our lives to it. This is not a side line for us!”
WK South has always held a special place in the health system and this community. It was the first satellite hospital in Louisiana. It has always been about access – taking quality healthcare to where people live. And, with the addition and multiple expansions of the hospital’s Center for Women’s Health, it has become a regional center of excellence for the care of women and children.
The Center has a Level 3 regional Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and high risk obstetrical services in one convenient place. G. Brent Whitton, MD, a lifelong Shreveporter and an experienced board-certified neonatologist, is WK South’s director of pediatrics. Dr. Whitton is quick to say, “This hospital can meet most all of the needs of pediatric patients from the youngest to the oldest.”
WK South’s NICU was the first in this region to go to individual, private rooms to care for babies. “We are able to control all aspects of the environment and offer parents and families more privacy,” Dr. Whitton says. “One of the most important things for us to remember is we aren’t just treating the baby, we’re also treating the family.”
Dr. Chhabra agrees. “Pediatrics is a specialty where you have to have a partnership with the parents. We see these children from birth to their high school years, and we have the best outcomes when we are on the same page with the families. ”
