Welcome to Pediatric Hospital Medicine

Pediatric Hospitalists are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week on our main campus at Children's Hospital Colorado in Aurora and at all of our Network of Care locations. Parents and families can reach us by phone at (720) 777-5070.

We provide inpatient care to all pediatric patients hospitalized with general medical conditions. We coordinate family-centered care, with a focus on communication between families, consultants, and referring providers. We adhere to Children's Colorado clinical care guidelines and work to promote innovative, evidence-based pediatric inpatient care.

• Hospitalist Services at Children's Hospital Colorado Main Campus
  We provide inpatient care of hospitalized children with general pediatric medical conditions. We also provide hospital co-management and consultation for surgical patients with complex medical conditions. Our hospitalists are all credentialed in procedural sedation and provide sedation services for our patients requiring procedures on the medical unit or in the procedure center. We maintain a focus on family-centered care and exemplary communication with our community referring providers.
• Hospitalist Services in the Network of Care (NOC)
  Children’s Hospitalist Colorado Group (CHCG), including Children’s Colorado at Exempla Lutheran Medical Center, Children’s Colorado at Saint Joseph Hospital, and Children’s Colorado at Parker Adventist Hospital.
  CHCG hospitalists provide inpatient care of hospitalized patients at our Network of Care (NOC) inpatient settings. We follow the same standards of quality and care at all of our NOC sites as we do at the Children's Colorado main campus, including adherence to established clinical care guidelines and practice of evidence-based medicine. We maintain a focus on family-centered care and exemplary communication with our community referring providers

View the Clinical Leadership Team

Clinical and Classroom Education & an Innovative Teaching Faculty Program

Our PHM faculty are very involved in the education of many different levels of learners, from undergraduate to medical and other health professional students, residents, fellows, advanced practice providers, physicians, patients, families, and our community.

• Clinical Education: Many hospitalists serve as attending physicians on resident/student teaching teams, perform bedside teaching during family-centered rounds, and provide teaching overnight as nocturnists. Members of our Section have received the annual teaching award as voted on by the pediatric residents, a reflection of our hospitalists’ impressive skills and dedication to trainee education.
• Classroom Education: Hospitalists are active in leading and participating in formal didactics, simulations, and small group discussions for students, residents, and fellows in the classroom. They have developed novel curriculums and lecture series focusing on cross-coverage skills, high-value care, intravenous fluids, how to call a consult, evidence-based medicine, Point-of-Care Ultrasound, resiliency, and various other topics. They have led the development and implementation of the pediatric residency program’s Academic Half Day. Hospitalists also precept medical students in the University of Colorado School of Medicine Problem Based Learning curriculum. Our Section hosts an annual national PHM conference that highlights clinical topics relevant to hospital medicine and diagnostic dilemmas, attended by hospitalists from around the country.   
• Teaching Excellence Among Medical Providers (“TEAM”) Program: We developed an innovative PHM teaching program consisting of a core group of expert faculty medical educators. TEAM aims to:
  

1. Enhance the educational experience of different levels of learners in hospital medicine.
2. Improve utilization of direct observation and feedback for learners as a teaching strategy in clinical and non-clinical settings.
3. Optimize training programs’ ability to perform competency-based assessments by completing milestone-targeted written evaluation forms.
4. Implement faculty peer-to-peer observations and feedback to hone attending physician teaching skills.
5. Be a national leader in the implementation of a hospital medicine teaching program.

PHM Training Programs

• PHM Fellowship: Our Section offers an ACGME-accredited 2-year fellowship (one fellow per year). Our fellows receive outstanding clinical experience at quaternary and community hospitals, scholarly opportunities in translational research, health services research, Medical Education, Clinical Effectiveness, patient safety and/or Quality Improvement, as well as leadership and administrative training.
  
• Advanced Practice Provider (APP) Fellowship*: Our Section, in collaboration with the Section of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, offers a unique 1-year, post-graduate APP fellowship in which advanced practice providers receive additional in-depth training in pediatric hospital medicine and intensive care. Many graduates of this fellowship have subsequently joined our Section.
  *On hold during COVID-19

Educational Leadership

Several of our PHM faculty hold educational leadership positions both within and outside the Section.  Our PHM Section has a Director and Associate Director of Education who are responsible for Continuing Medical Education, professional development, faculty orientation, original teaching programs, faculty and trainee mentorship, and more. Members of the Section also lead our PHM training programs, including our PHM fellowship and APP fellowship.  Lastly, our faculty holds educational leadership roles outside the Section as Associate Directors of the Pediatric Residency Program and as Directors within the University of Colorado’s Physician Assistant Program and Nursing School. Our educational leaders work closely and collaborate with other University of Colorado Department of Pediatrics’ Medical Education faculty on training programs, committee work, teaching endeavors, and research projects.

Educational Scholarship

Our PHM faculty is actively engaged in and lead educational scholarship, both locally and nationally, having presented multiple posters, workshops, and research plenary presentations at scientific meetings. They have published manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals while also mentoring the next generation of educators in their own scholarly work. Topic areas of interest include curriculum development, high-value care, learner evaluations, professional development, attending supervision on rounds, handoff, simulation, and innovative teaching programs.

Mentorship

We highly value mentorship and supporting our colleagues and learners. Within our Section, we developed the HOspital Medicine Mentorship and Engagement (“HOME”) Program, with the goal of fostering a community of pediatric hospitalists who continually strive for professional development and personal growth through mentorship, engagement, and camaraderie. Ultimately, the HOME program aims to provide the guidance and interpersonal connectedness needed to reduce burnout and further promote career satisfaction and success. Our faculty is committed to offering career, clinical, leadership and research mentorship to one another as well as to fellows, residents, and students. Many of our hospitalists participate in the mentorship and education of 1st- and 2nd-year medical students through the University of Colorado Foundations of Doctoring Curriculum where students receive intensive training to hone their history-taking, physical examination, clinical reasoning and communication skills. 

Professional Development

Our Section is dedicated to professional development and lifelong learning through our educational pursuits. We have monthly conferences focused on Continuing Medical Education, evidence-based medicine, clinical conundrums, Morbidity & Mortality, or relevant educational research topics. Our TEAM Program has also initiated a “peer-to-peer” observation experience to provide the feedback and coaching needed to ensure ongoing faculty development. In addition, many faculty have completed formal training programs, such as the IHQSE Certificate Training Program, Academy of Medical Educators Teaching Scholars Program, SCORE Fellowship, Career Cornerstones, CU Clinical Leadership Development Course and many other local and national programs.  

View the Education Leadership Team

Overview

Quality Improvement (QI) within the PHM Division encompasses a variety of initiatives and activities to enhance patient quality and safety, and to educate faculty, residents, and students at Children’s Hospital Colorado (CHCO). PHM faculty lead monthly Morbidity and Mortality (M&M) conferences; bi-monthly Quality Corner presentations to showcase QI initiatives, quality metrics, and relevant Clinical Pathways; and monthly Clinical-Quality Council meetings to galvanize important operational and quality initiatives. QI activities are overseen by the Division’s Director of Quality (Mark Brittan, MD, MPH), the Associate Director of Quality (Amy Tyler, MD, MSCS), and the Associate Medical Director of Clinical Effectiveness (Leigh Anne Bakel, MD, MSc), who directs the development and implementation of Clinical Pathways at CHCO.

Quality Improvement Initiatives

Our faculty is heavily engaged in QI at the local and national level. Faculty participate in up to 25 projects annually with focus on High-Value Care, Clinical Effectiveness and Patient Safety. Hospitalists lead a program to improve care for patients with bronchiolitis by aligning patient care with the best available evidence, reducing unnecessary variation in care, and helping to ensure that patients get the right care at the right time in the right setting. Others aim to improve inpatient influenza vaccination rates, de-label penicillin allergies, standardize management of newborn jaundice, and reduce unnecessary lab testing. Hospitalists also collaborate with nursing leaders and primary care and subspecialist colleagues on numerous shared QI enterprises, some of which address organizational Pillar Goals. For instance, we participate in projects to improve patient flow; reduce codes outside the ICU; mitigate hospital acquired conditions through bundled interventions; decrease peripheral IV infiltrates; improve transitions of care from hospital to home; optimize asthma management; and enhance surveillance for acute kidney injury. In recent years, hospitalists have participated in national QI collaboratives to standardize IV fluids, improve time to antibiotic administration in sepsis, standardize care for substance exposed newborns, implement I-PASS handoffs, and improve hospital discharge instructions. Finally, CHCO hospitalists are prominently involved in Clinical Pathways, with several faculty currently helping to develop COVID-19-related clinical guidance. Through these widespread academic activities, CHCO hospitalists have had robust presence at local and national QI meetings, numerous peer-reviewed QI abstracts and manuscripts, and successful applications for grant funding through the School of Medicine’s Clinical Effectiveness and Patient Safety small grants program.

Quality Improvement Education

Many of our PHM faculty provide individual mentorship to faculty and learners who are interested in quality and safety, or who would like to initiate a QI project. Structured educational activities within the Division include M&M, Quality Corner, Journal Club, works in progress sessions, and QI workshops. Additional training programs are available to all levels of learners and faculty on the Anschutz Medical Campus through The Institute for Healthcare Quality, Safety and Efficiency (IHQSE) program.

View the QI Leadership Team

Our pediatric hospitalists are engaged in important research focused on improving the health and outcomes of children who are hospitalized.  As pediatric hospitalists have a broad clinical expertise, our research also expands across hospital systems, comparative effectiveness, medical education, surgical outcomes, clinical practice, and quality improvement, and have a national reputation for this work.  Research efforts are supported by oversight and mentorship from the Division’s Director for Research (Lilliam Ambroggio, PhD) and Associate Director for Research (Mark Brittan, MD, MPH).

Research Studies

Our research coalesces around the concept of “High Value Care” and and informs best clinical practices. Studies cover a broad range of the clinical/translational spectrum, and a wide variety of research methods. The division has developed a strong, and growing, cohort of research-intensive faculty who have had significant success in gaining extramural funding for their studies. Researchers work closely with the Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CCTSI), and the ACCORDS Child Program (ACCORDS) to develop and implement research programs.  Additional research support comes from division resources including analytic and biostatistical support for research projects and also small amounts of research support funds.  Fellows and faculty can be further supported by several hospital and campus-wide funding opportunities. Methodologic expertise in the division covers a wide range of topics including secondary dataset analysis (often focused on the Pediatric Health Information Systems (PHIS) database), dissemination and implementation science, high value care, learning health systems, educational research, clinical trials, translational research, survey research and qualitative analysis,  In addition to many inter-divisional collaborative projects, our researchers also collaborate extensively with colleagues in other specialties, including Pulmonology and Sleep Medicine, Infectious Diseases, Emergency Medicine, and Medical Education.

Research Education

The Research Director and Associate Director oversee a robust portfolio of educational opportunities to advance research skills, and also are available to mentor faculty of all levels interested in their research endeavors.  Didactic opportunities include a monthly lecture series, bi-monthly works in progress sessions, research-related journal club, and access to additional formal research training fellowships on campus.

View the Research Leadership Team