Cottage Children’s Medical Center and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Announce Collaboration to Expand Access to Pediatric Care for Central Coast Families

Cottage Children’s Medical Center (CCMC), based at Santa Barbara  Cottage Hospital, announced a new collaboration today, becoming a member of the Children’s Hospital Los  Angeles (CHLA) Care Network. It means children on the Central Coast with complex conditions can now get more  of their care close to home.  

“Our focus at CCMC is high quality care for our pediatric patients locally. This affiliation is a huge leap forward in  reducing the burden placed on families to travel multiple times a year for a chronic condition that requires a  large academic center like CHLA,” says Miriam Parsa, MD, MPH, Chief Pediatric Medical Officer of Cottage  Children’s Medical Center. 

Families throughout the region will not need to make any change in how they access care at Cottage Children’s  Medical Center. If CCMC does not offer the specialty indicated for a complex diagnosis, Cottage and CHLA will  work closely together and with families to coordinate specialty care for children at Children’s Hospital Los  Angeles as needed, and the child can return to CCMC for follow-up care or ongoing treatments closer to home  whenever possible. 

“Cottage Children’s is proud to collaborate with Children’s Hospital Los Angeles to provide the best care for the  children and families we serve,” says Scott Wester, President and CEO of Cottage Health. “Keeping families close  to home while their children are undergoing medical treatment makes a difference. It means their support  system is nearby, and they aren’t making as many long drives. It’s one less burden on families dealing with the  stress of a child’s illness.” 

CCMC and CHLA will work together to coordinate specialty care when needed, to share clinical best practices  and to train and educate nurses and residency fellows, and CHLA will be the pediatric partner of choice for  CCMC referrals.  

“We welcome Cottage Children’s to the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Care Network,” says Bhavana Arora, MD,  Chief Medical Officer of the CHLA Care Network. “We’re excited about this collaboration; It opens the door for  Central Coast families to have more convenient access to lifesaving and life-changing patient care, research, and  clinical trials.” 

Cottage Children’s Medical Center is an award-winning regional referral center for the Central Coast, and is  home to a pediatric residency program, a pediatric trauma center, pediatric and neonatal intensive care units, a pediatric acute care unit and Grotenhuis Pediatric Clinics for outpatient care. 

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is ranked the No. 1 pediatric hospital in California and among the top ten  children’s hospitals in the nation by U.S. News & World Report’s Best Children’s Hospital Survey. A pediatric  academic medical center, CHLA supports 350 specialty programs and services, oversees more than 500 clinical 

trials and manages more than 747,000 patient visits annually, delivering more pediatric care for complex  patients than any other hospital in California. 

Later this year, CCMC plans to open its new location of Grotenhuis Pediatric Clinics adjacent to Santa Barbara  Cottage Hospital, and Cottage Children’s will continue to expand services and develop new programs  throughout the region. Expect more developments in the months ahead as CCMC and CHLA collaborate on  patient care initiatives for Central Coast children.