Elevating health through partnership

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At her first trip to Shriners Children’s Spokane, 16-year-old Taylor Williams met with a team of providers from multiple hospitals. This collaborative appointment stems from a partnership between MultiCare Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital and Shriners Children’s Spokane aimed at filling a gap in regional pediatric care.

Taylor has cerebral palsy and scoliosis, experiences regular seizures, and has used a power wheelchair her entire life. Prior to this partnership, her family traveled from Yakima to Tacoma to see John “Forrest” Bennett, ARNP, a physical medicine and rehabilitation provider at Mary Bridge Children’s.

The trip was costly, stressful and required her parents to take multiple days off work, yet it was their only option due to the limited availability of this type of care in Yakima and the Inland Northwest.

Now, thanks to the partnership between Mary Bridge Children’s and Shriners, the Williams family can travel to Spokane to seek this specialized care. In Spokane, they can simultaneously meet with Bryan Tompkins, MD, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Shriners.

“Now it’s all in one place,” says Sarah Williams, Taylor’s mother. “Having them collaborate together is so nice.”

Through this partnership, Bennett and Robert Cooper, MD — a fellow Mary Bridge Children’s physical medicine and rehabilitation provider — visit the Spokane Shriners clinic multiple times each month to meet with patients. The children they care for are living with spinal or brain injuries, cerebral palsy and other conditions that may limit their physical ability. Bennett and Dr. Cooper collaborate with Shriners providers like Dr. Tompkins during appointments to help patients live a comfortable life and reach their full potential.

“Each month, these important Spokane clinics fill up,” says Peter Brewer, administrator for Shriners Children’s Spokane. “And we’re still working with a waitlist of children.”