WakeMed, Duke team up on pediatric care

Physicians at the Duke Children’s Subspecialty Clinic, now located on the Duke Raleigh Hospital campus, will moved this summer to the new WakeMed Raleigh Medical Park. Officials said the combination of WakeMed Children's Hospital and Duke's specialists will allow for better, more convenient care for ill children.

“Since announcing the WakeMed Children’s Hospital in 2009, we have significantly expanded our pediatric specialty offerings. However, there are still some specialties and services that require transfer to another hospital and often follow up care must be sought out of county,” WakeMed Chief Executive Dr. Bill Atkinson said in a statement. "(Duke is) highly regarded for their overwhelming depth and clinical quality offered by their specialty physicians."

Duke specialists will be available for inpatient consultations and follow-up care for WakeMed’s pediatric patients and outpatient visits from referring physicians, officials said. The two hospital systems plan to explore prospects for expanding the agreement, including the potential for developing satellite offices in north Raleigh and Cary, they said.

“This is truly a win-win-win situation in that it will, first and foremost, result in the very best care for children in Wake County and beyond, provide opportunities for our specialty faculty to share their expertise with a greater population of patients and bring to WakeMed important areas of expertise and nationally recognized specialists,” Dr. Victor Dzau, president and chief executive of Duke University Health System, said in a statement.