Children's Direct

Children’s Direct began in 2007 to provide centralized communications and simplified access to St. Louis Children’s Hospital specialists and services. By providing one phone number physician’s can call, the staff of Referral Specialists assist with scheduling a specialty clinic appointment, arranging a phone consult with one of our specialists, registering for CME’s, as well as a variety of resources for physicians and their patients. In line with St. Louis Children's Hospital goal of “Doing What’s Right for Kids”, we expanded in February 2010 with the ‘Transfer Center’. Staffed with 14 pediatric registered nurses 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, Children’s Direct services now include coordinating unscheduled admission of patients, managing the transfer of patients from referring hospitals, and serving as the dispatch for the St. Louis Children’s Hospital transport team.

(In total during 2010, Children’s Direct handled 12,806 calls. Included in that number were 3,558 transfers, a 4 percent increase over 2009; 2,896 referral calls, an 18 percent increase; and more than 3,500 phone consultation calls, an almost 400 percent increase.)