Salinas, Calif. – July 26, 2017 – Natividad Medical Center (NMC) has announced the expansion of its Pediatric Hospitalist Services, including round-the-clock hospitalist care for infants, children and teens while hospitalized at NMC. The expanded program, scheduled to begin July 24, is affiliated with the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Benioff Children’s Hospital, one of the largest children’s healthcare providers in the country.

Pediatric hospitalists are pediatricians who work in hospitals, caring for children in many hospital areas, including the emergency department, pediatric ward, labor and delivery, and the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Natividad’s pediatric hospitalists work with patients, their families, specialists, and other providers to provide a family-centered and comprehensive approach to patient care.

“Adding 24/7 pediatric hospitalists will make Natividad the only hospital in the county to offer this level of specialized care,” said Christopher Carpenter, MD, MPH, director of NMC’s Pediatrics Services and inpatient hospitalist at UCSF. “Not only will be have round-the-clock pediatric providers, but our affiliation with UCSF provides access to specialists within a network of eight local hospitals. Sick or injured children can stay and be treated here rather than transferred to another hospital in the Bay Area.”

Round-the-clock pediatric hospitalist care allows NMC to treat patients prompty, modify treatment plans, provide follow up care and tests, coordinate discharges, and obtain medications and resources for families after discharge. Hospitalist programs are shown to reduce hospital stays, help prevent medical complications and lower healthcare costs.

As director of NMC’s Pediatrics Services and inpatient hospitalist at UCSF, Dr. Chris Carpenter will oversee the pediatric hospitalist team at NMC. He previously worked at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School from 2011-2015.

The pediatric hospitalist staff includes Dr. Sarah Smith, Dr. Matthew Calzetta, Dr. Raul Lara, Dr. Rachel Lusk and Dr. Nathan Uchtmann. All are board-certified and have received special training in caring for children ranging from newborns to adolescents. These hospitalists focus solely on the care of hospitalized children.

Natividad’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit has had an affiliation with UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals for over 10 years and is certified by California Children’s Services.

About Natividad Medical Center (NMC)
Owned and operated by Monterey County, NMC is a 172-bed, acute-care hospital providing health care services to county residents for more than 132 years. Based in Salinas, California, NMC offers inpatient, outpatient, emergency, diagnostic and specialty medical care. NMC provides more than 38,000 patient days of care each year and has more than 52,000 emergency department visits per year. NMC is a Level II Trauma Center providing the immediate availability of specialized personnel, equipment and services to treat the most severe and critical injuries. NMC’s Trauma Center is a vital community service locally that saves lives and eliminates the need to fly critically injured patients to a distant trauma center. NMC is ranked No. 1 in newborn deliveries in Monterey County and is the only teaching hospital on the Central Coast through its affiliation with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). With a medical staff of more than 350 physicians, NMC’s mission is to continually monitor and improve the health of the people, including the vulnerable, in Monterey County through coordinated, affordable high-quality health care. For more information, please call 831-755-4111 or visit https://www.natividad.com/.