A Message from Shelly Voet, MD

February 2021

Hello to my fellow community pediatric providers.  As I write this, the residual from our two weeks of Cincinnati winter intensive is melting away. Thankfully, we are also seeing a calming of the post-holiday surge in COVID-19 cases with a return to our known risk mitigating behaviors.  Incidence of new cases is the lowest it has been in months. Vaccine roll-out in our communities have been limited by supply but we are grateful for the tremendous efforts of our public health partners in coordinating this complex undertaking. Currently in our region, 8-14% of the population has started the vaccine series.

For community pediatric providers, this was a February unlike any other. The usual levels of busy phone calls and visits for children with bronchiolitis and flu are not there.  In their place are COVID-19 related visits, a handful of non-COVID winter infections, other non-infection related ill visits, and well visits.  Unfortunately, there continues to be negative consequences to children due to the pandemic with delayed care and impacts on mental health which often make many visits more complex.  The challenges of interrupted learning are certainly taking their toll on families as well.  There is no question about the importance of the role of pediatric PCPS in supporting children and families right now.  As we look forward to further vaccination efforts, I am grateful to Dr. Tina Cheng and Dr. Robert Frenck for their briefing with Senators Brown and Portman in support of COVID vaccine research for children.  If you are interested, the presentation can be viewed HERE.

On another positive note, February brought further extension of our ability to communicate with specialty divisions. Under the leadership of Jeff Anderson, a newly extended interface called Physician E-Consult is available to PCPs using Epic Link. This system gives us the ability to contact 26 divisions at CCHMC regarding clinical questions. The intent of this system is to complement Physician Priority Link by allowing electronic access to a division for non-urgent issues. This system has been well received by PCPs and specialists as well. I have personally found it very helpful in asking about the need for further tests before a visit and clarifying next best steps before or between visits.

E-consult is not the only feature that makes Epic Link a valuable tool in practice. The Physician Outreach information in this issue describes in more detail the ways it can be used to help coordinate care for patients.

Thanks again for all you are doing for children and families in our community every day.

Shelly F. Voet MD

Pediatric Associates PSC

CCHMC Executive Community Physician Leader