Culver City Observer -

Children's Hospital Los Angeles opened the doors of its new outpatient care center in Santa Monica last week

The pediatric medical facility, Children's Hospital Los Angeles – Santa Monica, will be staffed by 11 physicians who are Board-Certified in eight specialties and subspecialties, including gastroenterology and nutrition, hematology-oncology, medical genetics, neurology, orthopedics, plastic and maxillofacial surgery, and urology.

"We are bringing world-class care to the neighborhood," says pediatric neurologist Kiarash Sadrieh, MD, a Santa Monica resident who will be the staff neurologist at Children's Hospital Los Angeles – Santa Monica.

"Santa Monica has great schools, great parks, great beaches and great community programs-now we have the best pediatric specialty care right here close to home. My medical colleagues and neighbors are very excited we're opening an outpatient care center in our community."

The Santa Monica outpatient care center will offer top medical expertise from Board-Certified and Board-Eligible members of the award-winning staff at Children's Hospital Los Angeles-ranked fifth among children's hospitals nationwide and number one in California by U.S. News & World Report.

The 3,000-square-foot center features seven exam rooms and will offer consults and evaluations. In addition, children requiring a medical procedure at the Children's Hospital Los Angeles campus in Hollywood can have all their pre-operation evaluation and post-operation follow-up visits at the Santa Monica facility, reducing the need to commute across town.

"Families who are taking care of a child with an illness already have enough to worry about, and commuting from the Westside to our main campus can be unnecessarily time-consuming and expensive," says renowned pediatric oncologist Stuart Siegel, MD, a Pacific Palisades resident who will serve as staff hematologist/oncologist at Children's Hospital Los Angeles – Santa Monica.

"Family-centered care is core to our mission, and by bringing necessary services closer to home we hope to give families more peace of mind and time to spend with loved ones."

The hospital has seen significant demand for its services on the Westside, says Robert Adler, MD, MSEd, senior vice chair of the hospital's Department of Pediatrics and chief medical director of the Children's Hospital Los Angeles Health System. More than 2,650 Westside children were treated at the main hospital in Hollywood during a 14-month stretch ending this past August, accounting for a total of 5,153 visits. That adds up to an estimated 170,000 miles that families commuted to receive care.

"The hospital consulted with local pediatricians to determine which specialty services might be most helpful for Westside families," Adler says. "Many pediatricians are pleased that their patients will now have convenient access to pediatric specialists from the top children's hospital in California. We are looking forward to working with them to enhance the access to and quality of pediatric specialty care in West L.A."

The Santa Monica outpatient center will also provide the best available care in a convenient location, attracting patients from the nearby communities of Torrance, Westchester and Culver City as well as from the San Fernando Valley, Adler says.

The hospital's recently opened outpatient center in Torrance offers Westside families additional pediatric services not yet available in Santa Monica, including cardiology, endocrinology, ophthalmology, otolaryngology (ENT) and pulmonology, providing them access to the nation's top doctors in nearly every major pediatric specialty. More services will be added to the Santa Monica outpatient care center as demand increases.

Preceded by the hospital's outpatient centers in Arcadia, Valencia and Torrance, Children's Hospital Los Angeles – Santa Monica is the fourth ambulatory care facility opened by Children's Hospital since 2010. Earlier this year, the hospital also joined forces with Providence Tarzana Medical Center in the operation of Providence Tarzana's pediatric and pediatric intensive care units, where patients now have access to Children's Hospital Los Angeles pediatric specialty services.

"Children's Hospital Los Angeles continues to make its world-renowned care easily accessible to families living in Greater Los Angeles," says Richard D. Cordova, FACHE, president and CEO of Children's Hospital Los Angeles. "We are thrilled to be bringing our exceptional care and our pediatric specialists from Children's Hospital to families in Santa Monica and West L.A."

The Santa Monica outpatient center is located at 1301 20th St., Ste. 460, Santa Monica, CA 90404. It is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. The site is staffed by Board-Certified and Board-Eligible pediatric clinicians.

Appointments can be made at 310-820-8608. Gastroenterology and nutrition services begin January 2014. For additional information, go to http://www.CHLA.org/SantaMonica.

Orthopaedic services will be available at 2020 Santa Monica Blvd., Ste. 400, Santa Monica, CA 90404. Appointments can be made at 310-315-2041. .

For more information, visit CHLA.org. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn, or visit WeTreatKidsBetter.org.