{"id":137549,"date":"2024-11-19T21:27:34","date_gmt":"2024-11-20T02:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=137549"},"modified":"2024-11-19T21:27:34","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T02:27:34","slug":"this-familys-pediatric-experience-went-above-and-beyond-the-textbook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=137549","title":{"rendered":"This Family\u2019s Pediatric Experience Went \u201cAbove and Beyond\u201d the Textbook"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the trip no parent wants to make: A frantic car ride to the hospital with an inconsolable child who clearly has broken\u00a0something<\/em>.<\/p>\n

That was Warren Shotto and his 4-year-old daughter, Charlie, this past summer, and he thought if he could just get her to the emergency room, everything would soon be better \u2013 but that\u2019s not exactly how it worked out.<\/p>\n

After a sliding accident this past summer, Shotto, of Dunmore, Pa., rushed his young daughter to the ER at an area hospital where they experienced one disappointment and frustration after another. Shotto said the team of providers at the ER barely communicated with him and failed to directly address his distressed daughter. After trying and failing to force feed her liquid ibuprofen, they told him to go home and get powdered Tylenol. They let hours pass before stabilizing Charlie\u2019s multiple fractures.<\/p>\n

And then, when Charlie was finally discharged some nine hours later, they waited for a follow-up call from an orthopedist that never came. In the end, Charlie, who had two fractures in her lower leg, would have to wait a week in a temporary splint before seeing a specialist.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Shotto decided to seek care elsewhere. He turned to St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network, and suddenly everything got way better. He requested an appointment with pediatric orthopedist\u00a0Nicolas Grimm, D.O<\/a>., and he met with him the very next morning in Bethlehem, about an hour away.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe difference was palpable,\u201d Shotto said, from the moment he and Charlie drove into the parking lot. \u201cThe valet greeted us and escorted us in. The volunteer smiled, said hello and asked if we needed help. Down the hall, the telephone operator greeted us. Every person we encountered on our way to the doctor\u2019s office was incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

When patients experience that kind of can-do and can-help attitude with every person they encounter, it \u201cspeaks volumes about the culture of St. Luke\u2019s,\u201d Shotto said.<\/p>\n

It was 59 minutes from the time Shotto parked to the time Charlie was on her way out in a cast. And she didn\u2019t fuss at all.<\/p>\n

Dr. Grimm, who also practices in Stroudsburg, offered to follow up with Charlie at that office, 30 minutes closer to the Shottos.<\/p>\n

Shotto has little doubt that the initial experience at the first hospital will hold a negative space in Charlie\u2019s memory\u2014days after the accident she refused to let her dentist touch her. But the experience she had with Dr. Grimm and the St. Luke\u2019s care team will also have a lasting impact, a positive one.<\/p>\n

He credits the exceptional care of St. Luke\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospital, which offers a wide variety of pediatric specialists such as Dr. Grimm.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe contrast between the two experiences was\u2026 One was completely textbook of what\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0to do, and the other was above and beyond the textbook of how to make patients happy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Over the course of Charlie\u2019s 10-week treatment with Grimm, she became more and more comfortable and happy with the care team.\u00a0 After Charlie was healed up and all done with her treatment at St. Luke\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospital, Shotto said, she \u201cwas sad to know she wasn\u2019t going back!\u201d<\/p>\n

About St. Luke\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n

Founded in 1872,\u00a0St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 20,000 employees providing services at 15 campuses and 350+ outpatient sites.\u00a0 With annual net revenue of $3.4 billion, the Network\u2019s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke\u2019s hospitals operate the largest network of trauma centers in Pennsylvania, with the Bethlehem Campus being home to St. Luke\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n

Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke\u2019s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania.\u00a0 In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only four-year medical school campus.\u00a0 It also operates the nation\u2019s oldest School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 52 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with more than 500 residents and fellows. In 2022, St. Luke\u2019s, a member of the Children\u2019s Hospital Association, opened the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only free-standing facility dedicated entirely to kids.<\/p>\n

SLUHN is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare\u2019s\u00a0five-star<\/em>\u00a0ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction.\u00a0 It is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades\u00a0Top Hospital<\/em>\u00a0and a Newsweek World\u2019s\u00a0Best Hospital<\/em>.\u00a0 The Network\u2019s flagship University Hospital has earned the\u00a0100 Top Major Teaching Hospital<\/em>\u00a0designation from Fortune\/PINC AI 10 years in a row, including in 2023 when it was identified as THE #4 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY.\u00a0 In 2021, St. Luke\u2019s was identified as one of the\u00a015 Top Health Systems<\/em>\u00a0nationally.\u00a0 Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the\u00a0Most Wired<\/em>\u00a0award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN\u2019s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information. \u00a0The Network is also recognized as one of the state\u2019s lowest-cost providers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nSam Kennedy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the trip no parent wants to make: A frantic car ride to the hospital with an inconsolable child who clearly has broken\u00a0something. That was Warren Shotto and his 4-year-old … Continue reading This Family\u2019s Pediatric Experience Went \u201cAbove and Beyond\u201d the Textbook<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137550,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/shotto.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137549"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=137549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/137550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=137549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=137549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=137549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}