A Message from Shelly Voet, MD
May 2021
Dear fellow pediatric care providers,
May brought positive developments in the efforts against COVID-19, including vaccine eligibility for teens ages 12-15 years. Several pediatric practices have started to vaccinate their patients in the region. We are grateful for the collaboration with state and local health departments and the strong work of our practice teams in making this happen. Every pediatric provider has fielded questions from families about the vaccines. CCHMC has made a strong commitment to support vaccination efforts through their media channels. If you have patients with vaccine questions, they can be directed HERE for numerous resources produced with input from community providers. You can also share or post this Teens and Tweens FLYER for families. Patients interested in a vaccine can access all vaccine providers listed on The Health Collaborative site HERE. This month national AAP and CDC also clarified that you can give the COVID-19 vaccine along with other vaccines.
Many partner organizations have also provided materials to support practices who want to begin vaccinating. National AAP has many implementation resources HERE. Ohio AAP materials including a recent webinar can be found at COVID-19 Resources | Ohio AAP.
New data regarding vaccine effectiveness also allowed the CDC to relax mask guidance for vaccinated individuals in public. Mask guidance has not changed for patient care areas, especially in pediatrics. We will continue to share any CCHMC policy adjustments for vaccinated employees in non-patient care areas in the weekly COVID-19 email.
A few items to highlight from this issue of Synapse:
1. Penicillin Allergy Testing Clinic – PCN allergy or not? In pediatrics, although 5-10% of kids develop a rash while on penicillin, 95% of those kids will NOT be allergic when re-exposed. According to the CDC, broad spectrum antibiotics are often used in place of PCN in those patients, which contributes to higher healthcare costs, increased risk of resistance, and suboptimal therapy. Dr. Kim Risma at CCHMC has developed a clinic at CCHMC using only ORAL dosing (no skin tests) to determine if there is a true allergy. Consider informing patients about this clinic as you see them for WCC this summer. We worked with Dr. Risma’s team to develop a flyer you can share with families attached HERE, as well as a PCP reference tool HERE. De-labeling children and teens who do not truly have a PCN allergy has both individual and public health benefits. CDC details HERE. You can refer directly to PATS clinic in EPIC or mark “PATS clinic” in your external EHR referral.
2. Mental Health – Information about the planned Behavioral Health Facility at College Hill and the September 17, 2021 virtual pediatric Mental Health Symposium.
3. 100th Anniversary of the B.K. Rachford Department of Pediatrics June 8 – This virtual event will begin with Grand Rounds at 8 am and include panels discussing CCHMC work with community providers, research, and clinical care over the last 100 years.
4. CME opportunities including a live event Neonatology for the PCP scheduled on June 23.
This month CPAC has also began to work with IS on a consult letter template improvement project and with Physician Outreach on an opt-in Urgent Text message system to supplement “Fax Blasts” about same day system closures. More to come on these initiatives as they develop. Finally, if you did not have the chance to complete the survey from Jennifer Cully DMD in Dental, she would appreciate your input as it will inform her talk about Fluoride Varnish in August. You can access her survey HERE. As always, if you have questions, comments or concerns, do not hesitate to reach out to me at shelly.voet@cchmc.org.
Shelly
Shelly Voet MD
Pediatric Associates PSC, CCHMC Executive Community Physician Leader