Patient Care

The general pediatric inpatient service (the Hospital Medicine service) provides direct inpatient care to patients with a variety of diagnoses. Hospitalists, physicians who specialize in the highly complex hospital environment, work with pediatric nurses, pharmacists, therapists and child life specialists to provide care for children with complex medical problems from the local community as well as children who are referred from all over northern and central California. Comprehensive social and case management services provide support to families while their child is in the hospital. Our physicians and case managers work closely with the patient’s primary care physician to ensure a smooth transition to the outpatient setting.

Our division provides inpatient care at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, as well as at our community-based hospital, ValleyCare Medical Center in Pleasanton. Our hospitalists provide direct care to children with a wide range of acute and chronic medical conditions and offer consultation to our surgical services. When patients require the care of specialty physicians, the hospitalist service coordinates treatment with all members of the provider team and ensures that discharge plans are communicated to primary care physicians. Hospitalists also provide telephone consultations to community physicians via our UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Access Center.

General Pediatric Medicine Consult Service

In addition to providing direct patient care, the hospital medicine service provides consultative services to pediatric medical and surgical specialists. Through the Access Center, hospitalists also provides telephone consultation with physicians at community hospitals throughout northern and central California.

Sedation and Procedural Support Service

Specially trained hospitalists and sedation nurses provide expert procedural sedation and other procedural support to patients throughout UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. Children who require painful procedures or those who cannot remain still long enough to complete important diagnostic tests are provided with a combination of behavioral and pharmacological sedation and are monitored closely throughout to ensure maximum safety.

Pediatric Pain and Palliative Care Service

IP3 (Integrated Pediatric Pain and Palliative Care) service: Pain and symptom management plays a large role in healing and quality of life. Children are especially vulnerable to the psychological stresses of being in the hospital. Integrated Pediatric Pain & Palliative Care (IP3) works together with families to ensure pain, symptom and emotional needs are met. Our IP3 team provides expert consultative services across the hospital and works collaboratively with providers from all disciplines. The spectrum of pain management integrative therapies offered range from biofeedback, massage therapy, guided imagery, acupressure and acupuncture to epidurals and regional nerve blocks.