Be Well Lakeland: Growing Up With Great Care
The Evolution of Pediatric Care at LRH
PHOTOS BY LANDON DAVIS AND PROVIDED BY LAKELAND REGIONAL HEALTH | DEVELOPED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH LAKELAND REGIONAL HEALTH
For parents in Polk County, a trip to a specialist often meant a long drive out of the county.
As Dr. Joseph Khoury—a pediatric orthopedic surgeon for Nemours Children’s Health, who practices at Lakeland Regional Health—points out, even 10 years ago, “If you were a kid in Polk County and you needed surgery, you had to leave the county to get it.”
That is no longer the case. Thanks to significant investment from LRH and a strategic partnership between LRH and Nemours, children and families can receive highly specialized pediatric care close to home.
“Kids are a lot more fun to take care of than adults,” says Dr. Khoury when asked why he chose pediatrics. “They are healthier in general and faster to heal. They are also motivated to get better and get back to having fun, where some adults are not as motivated.”
This joyful perspective is a common thread among the LRH team.
Dr. Charles Eldridge, pediatric emergency medicine director at LRH’s George W. Jenkins Children’s Emergency Department, says the team is “always trying to ensure they are providing the best care that they can for children.” LRH has the only dedicated pediatric emergency department in Polk County with a kid-friendly environment designed to keep children calm and comfortable.
IMPROVED ACCESS TO LIFE-CHANGING CARE
The partnership is exemplified by Dr. Khoury’s schedule. He spends four days a week at LRH for clinic and surgery, and one day a week at Nemours Children’s Hospital, Florida, in Orlando. Nemours Children’s Hospital, Florida, which is ranked among the very best children’s hospitals for pediatric orthopedics and more by U.S. News & World Report, is where Dr. Khoury does complex scoliosis surgeries, which require two orthopedic surgeons.
This arrangement ensures that the highest level of specialized care, previously only accessible in neighboring metro areas, is now consistently available close to home.
Nemours Children’s Health at Lakeland Regional Health has an entirely separate pediatric operating room suite with its own scrub team, pediatric intensivists, and nurses, all housed within the Carol Jenkins Barnett Pavilion for Women and Children. This dedicated infrastructure ensures that every aspect of a child’s care, from surgery to recovery, is optimized for their unique needs.
Pediatric surgeon Dr. Drew Rideout, who tackles everything from routine hernias and appendectomies to rare congenital anomalies like esophageal atresia, enjoys the challenges and variety of the specialty.
“With pediatrics, the specialty is pediatrics!” he jokes.
He often employs minimally invasive surgeries, such as creating three small holes to connect the esophagus in an area about as wide as a golf ball, which results in less scarring, quicker recovery, and fewer issues later.
“Kids are a lot more fun to take care of than adults,” says Dr. Khoury when asked why he chose pediatrics. “They are healthier in general and faster to heal.”
DEVELOPING A CARE PLAN BEYOND CHILDHOOD
What sets LRH’s care apart—and offers profound reassurance to parents of children with chronic illnesses—is its complex care model that extends beyond the age of 21.
At many traditional children’s hospitals, patients “age out” once they become young adults, forcing them to transition to adult-focused physicians. For patients with serious, lifelong conditions like cystic fibrosis or spina bifida, this transition can be fraught with uncertainty. Adult-care physicians may have limited experience with these conditions, which were historically considered “childhood illnesses” because life expectancy was shorter. Now, with improved care, these patients are living longer, healthier lives, but they face new challenges in navigating the adult healthcare system.
Because LRH is a hospital that provides care for both children and adults, the pediatric team can orchestrate a seamless transfer of care.
Dr. Rideout highlights this unique advantage: “What’s exciting about doing pediatrics at a hospital that also cares for adults is the complex care that’s available.”
For patients with cystic fibrosis, which affects the lungs, among other organs, he can work directly with a pulmonologist to “arrange continuation of care” into adulthood.
Dr. Khoury echoes this, mentioning that for children with spina bifida, he actively develops a care plan before handing them off to an adult physician, ensuring the new doctor is fully equipped to continue the specialized treatment.
This ability to provide an unbroken chain of knowledge and expertise is invaluable and is a reflection of the team’s family-oriented approach.
“We take care of the child, but we talk with the parents,” Dr. Rideout says. “Some surgeries, like an appendectomy, are routine for us. But it’s their child, so it’s very different. We want to answer all their questions and make sure they are comfortable.”
Dr. Eldridge says families can trust their child is in the right place when they are at LRH and being cared for by Nemours and LRH physicians.
“We’re able to treat everything from minor injuries to more severe injuries, such as broken bones, concussions, asthma exacerbations, and pediatric trauma,” he says.
GROWING WITH THE COMMUNITY
For these physicians, their confidence comes not only from years of experience as surgeons, but also from the functional outcomes for the children they care for.
Dr. Khoury finds it extremely rewarding to help a child with a neurological disease like cerebral palsy “be able to walk on their own rather than use a wheelchair or walker,” or help a child “be able to play a sport.”
“They want to have fun. They want to look like everyone else instead of looking ‘different,’ and they want to do the things that their friends are doing,” he says matter-of-factly.
As one of the fastest-growing counties in the state, where thousands of boys and girls are born each year, the ability to offer state-of-the-art, dedicated pediatric care is not just helpful—it’s a necessity.
“It’s an exciting time for Lakeland,” Dr. Khoury concludes, “as we are able to offer more and more care to the families of Polk County.”