Two of Maryland?s premier medical research institutions will formalize their partnership on behalf of fragile youngsters through Mount Washington Pediatric Hospital in Northwest Baltimore.
The institutions, Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland Medical System, announced this week they will jointly own the facility beginning July 1. The partnership will advance a tradition of cooperation that benefits patients, said University of Maryland Medical System spokeswoman Joan Shnipper.
“We cooperate on many things ? for example, we have a joint fellowship program in pediatric surgery, we collaborate on an annual professional meeting on cancer care and research ? but we have never shared ownership of a patient care facility,” she said.
The agreement by the two institutions gives each a 50 percent stake in the facility, and has been approved by both boards of directors. The facility, founded in 1922, provides comprehensive care with 56 pediatric specialty beds and 46 rehabilitation beds and serves children from around the world.
Maryland and Hopkins have collaborated on medicine for the very young and very vulnerable at Mount Washington for more than 30 years, said Dr. George Dover, chair of Johns Hopkins? pediatric department.
From its early days, Mount Washington has been the designated neonatal intensive care facility for the state, he said.
“We?ve been incredibly successful in saving these kids? lives and stabilizing them. That means they?re staying in the hospital longer because we?re getting them younger and younger,” he said.
Staff from both institutions worked together on guidelines for care and for helping premature infants move to their family homes with minimal stress, Dover said.
Faculty and researchers from both schools spend a good amount of time atMount Washington working on lung ailments in young children and other specialties, he said.
“This partnership … is a giant advance for the children who need our care,” said hospital President Sheldon J. Stein.
