SANTA BARBARA — Cottage Children’s Medical Center (CCMC), based at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, announced a new collaboration today, becoming a member of the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) Care Network. It means children on the Central Coast with complex conditions can now get more of their care close to home.
“Our focus at CCMC is high quality care for our pediatric patients locally. This affiliation is a huge leap forward in reducing the burden placed on families to travel multiple times a year for a chronic condition that requires a large academic center like CHLA,” says Miriam Parsa, MD, MPH, Chief Pediatric Medical Officer of Cottage Children’s Medical Center.
Families throughout the region will not need to make any change in how they access care at Cottage Children’s Medical Center. If CCMC does not offer the specialty indicated for a complex diagnosis, Cottage and CHLA will work closely together and with families to coordinate specialty care for children at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles as needed, and the child can return to CCMC for follow-up care or ongoing treatments closer to home whenever possible.
“Cottage Children’s is proud to collaborate with Children’s Hospital Los Angeles to provide the best care for the children and families we serve,” says Scott Wester, President and CEO of Cottage Health. “Keeping families close to home while their children are undergoing medical treatment makes a difference. It means their support system is nearby, and they aren’t making as many long drives. It’s one less burden on families dealing with the stress of a child’s illness.”
CCMC and CHLA will work together to coordinate specialty care when needed, to share clinical best practices and to train and educate nurses and residency fellows, and CHLA will be the pediatric partner of choice for CCMC referrals.
“We welcome Cottage Children’s to the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Care Network,” says Bhavana Arora, MD, Chief Medical Officer of the CHLA Care Network. “We’re excited about this collaboration; It opens the door for Central Coast families to have more convenient access to lifesaving and life-changing patient care, research, and clinical trials.”
Cottage Children’s Medical Center is an award-winning regional referral center for the Central Coast, and is home to a pediatric residency program, a pediatric trauma center, pediatric and neonatal intensive care units, a pediatric acute care unit and Grotenhuis Pediatric Clinics for outpatient care.
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is ranked the No. 1 pediatric hospital in California and among the top ten children’s hospitals in the nation by U.S. News & World Report’s Best Children’s Hospital Survey. A pediatric academic medical center, CHLA supports 350 specialty programs and services, oversees more than 500 clinicaltrials and manages more than 747,000 patient visits annually, delivering more pediatric care for complex patients than any other hospital in California.
Later this year, CCMC plans to open its new location of Grotenhuis Pediatric Clinics adjacent to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, and Cottage Children’s will continue to expand services and develop new programs throughout the region. Expect more developments in the months ahead as CCMC and CHLA collaborate on patient care initiatives for Central Coast children.
About Cottage Health | CottageHealth.org
Cottage Health is a not-for-profit health system providing advanced medical care on California’s Central Coast. In the past year, its hospitals in Goleta, Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez Valley cared for 20,733 inpatient admissions, 91,649 emergency department visits and 2,005 newborn deliveries. With more than 700 physicians, including specialists typically found only at university medical centers, Cottage offers expert, comprehensive care. As a teaching institution, it trains physicians through residency programs in medical, surgical, pediatric and radiology specialties. Cottage Health is home to the Central Coast’s only Level I adult and Level II pediatric trauma center and an advanced comprehensive stroke center. Its specialty services include Cottage Children’s Medical Center, Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital, the Santa Barbara Neuroscience Institute, Cottage Heart & Vascular Center and Cottage Center for Orthopedics. Beyond its hospitals, Cottage expands care through primary and specialty clinics, urgent care centers and 24/7 provider access via Cottage Virtual Care.
About Cottage Children’s Medical Center
Cottage Children’s Medical Center (CCMC) is located within Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, a regional referral center and teaching hospital with a Level 2 Pediatric Trauma Center and pediatric and neonatal intensive care units. CCMC is dedicated to improving the health of its young patients through clinical excellence, and by supporting patients and their families with compassion and integrity.
CCMC is recognized for excellence that draws some of the nation’s top pediatric specialists to provide comprehensive services to patients living throughout the Central Coast and beyond. Its Grotenhuis Pediatric Clinics, in hematology-oncology, gastroenterology, rheumatology and endocrinology are designated Special Care Centers (SCC) by the state of California. This designation means that children can receive comprehensive care in these specialties at CCMC.
About Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is at the forefront of pediatric medicine and is the largest provider of hospital care for children in California. Since its founding in 1901, CHLA has delivered a level of pediatric care that is among the best in the world. Ranked one of the top 10 children’s hospitals in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles provides comprehensive and compassionate care to one of the largest and most diverse pediatric patient populations in the country. The hospital is the top-ranked children’s hospital in California and the Pacific U.S. region for 2024-25. A leader in pediatric research, CHLA is among the top 10 children’s hospitals for research funding from the National Institutes of Health. The Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles supports the full continuum of research, translating scientific discoveries into life-changing treatments for patients around the globe. As a pediatric academic medical center, CHLA is also home to one of the largest graduate education programs for pediatricians in the United States. The hospital’s commitment to building stronger, healthier communities is evident in CHLA’s efforts to enhance health education and literacy, introduce more people to careers in health care, and fight food insecurity. To learn more, follow CHLA on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and X, and visit CHLA.org