In medicine, proximity is key. Being close to your doctor or to a hospital is not only a matter of convenience; it can impact a long-term medical outcome—whether it’s the patient having to endure arduous commutes themselves or being separated from the family support network that helps them pull through rehabilitation from injury or recovery from illness.
This is especially true for children. Covenant Children’s is the only facility licensed as a children’s hospital by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in Lubbock, the Panhandle Plains, and eastern New Mexico. For thousands of families living throughout the vast and largely rural region, Covenant is the closest place they can receive specialized pediatric care for injury and illness all under the same roof. But even Covenant can’t provide every service a child might need. That’s why the hospital has set up key partnerships with other institutions to ensure that their patients get the very best in treatment, no matter the situation.
“We know that patients do better when they’re allowed to receive complex treatment closer to home,” says David Gray, Chief Medical Officer at Covenant Children’s. “If we can minimize their disruption, their recovery has better potential for a positive outcome.”
A prime example is Covenant’s partnership with Cook Children’s Medical Center’s cardiac surgery program in Fort Worth. Gray says that to become proficient in cardiovascular surgery, a surgeon has to perform a lot of cases—and West Texas simply doesn’t have the volume of patients for Covenant to maintain its own program. But occasionally there are children in Covenant’s region who need a cardiovascular surgeon. Enter Cook, which, through the partnership, periodically sends its surgeon to Lubbock to operate on Covenant patients here instead of that patient—and their family—having to go all the way to Fort Worth.
Partnerships help Covenant Children’s keep their patients close to home.
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"We know that patients do better when they’re allowed to receive complex treatment closer to home."
“Now the family doesn’t have to travel nearly as far,” says Gray. “Plus, they can avoid that extensive relocation during recovery and follow-up, which we can do right here at Covenant.”
Another way Covenant brings the best care to its patients is through partnership with Texas Tech Physicians and the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock. The university provides a number of hospitalists, including a pediatric urologist and several other specialists, to take care of Covenant patients. The partnership with an academic institution gives Covenant a direct line to researchers and scholars who are studying and developing the most innovative methods of care.
“The Health Sciences Center focuses on best practices,” says Gray. “As we learn more about how to provide pediatric care, they not only participate in the research, but they also bring the results of their research at the university and elsewhere to the bedside of our patients, who get more cutting-edge care.”
Again, a key benefit of the Texas Tech partnership is bringing a whole world of pediatric knowledge to bear on the treatment of patients who live in Covenant’s geographic sphere of coverage.
“The goal is to maintain the whole family dynamic, which is what you do when the procedure is done close to home,” says Gray. “For the patients, for the other children in the family, and for the working parents, distance matters.”
“Now the family doesn’t have to travel nearly as far,” says Gray. “Plus, they can avoid that extensive relocation during recovery and follow-up, which we can do right here at Covenant.”
Another way Covenant brings the best care to its patients is through partnership with Texas Tech Physicians and the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock. The university provides a number of hospitalists, including a pediatric urologist and several other specialists, to take care of Covenant patients. The partnership with an academic institution gives Covenant a direct line to researchers and scholars who are studying and developing the most innovative methods of care.
“The Health Sciences Center focuses on best practices,” says Gray. “As we learn more about how to provide pediatric care, they not only participate in the research, but they also bring the results of their research at the university and elsewhere to the bedside of our patients, who get more cutting-edge care.”
Again, a key benefit of the Texas Tech partnership is bringing a whole world of pediatric knowledge to bear on the treatment of patients who live in Covenant’s geographic sphere of coverage.
“The goal is to maintain the whole family dynamic, which is what you do when the procedure is done close to home,” says Gray. “For the patients, for the other children in the family, and for the working parents, distance matters.”
